One of the meeting rooms at the new James Bay library branch will be named in honour of Songhees elder Dr. Elmer George, who translated the Douglas Treaties into various First Nations languages. Courtesy Royal Roads University

Victoria honours local First Nations in naming new libary branch

sxʷeŋ’xʷəŋ taŋ’exw James Bay Branch a nod to Lekwungen name for area

The new branch of the Greater Victoria Public Library in James Bay officially has a name, thanks to the Name That Library campaign.

The sxʷeŋ’xʷəŋ taŋ’exw James Bay Branch will open in early spring. Pronounced s-hweng hw-ung tongue-oo-hw, it is the Lekwungen name for James Bay and was chosen after 157 of the 623 name submissions showed support for a First Nations name.

Victoria Mayor Lisa Helps expressed appreciation for the community’s participation in the campaign, saying it made for a tough decision by city council.

“With the City’s ongoing work towards reconciliation, and the library being situated on the traditional lands of the Lekwungen people, council felt it was most fitting to name the new branch the Lekwungen name for this area,” Helps said. The City consulted with the Songhees and Esquimalt Nations before making it official.

Two distinguished citizens, their names put forward for consideration by the two First Nations and the BC Black History Awareness Society, respectively, were selected for two community rooms at the library.

The Dr. Elmer “Seniemten” George M.S.M. Community Room will be named for the Songhees elder whose work translating the Douglas Treaties of the mid-1850s into First Nation languages saw him awarded the Meritorious Service Medal from the Governor General of Canada.

“I think sometimes people wait for someone to pass away first before they dedicate a building,” said Chief Andy Thomas of the Esquimalt Nation. “Doing this while Elmer is still alive is a sign of respect and acknowledges his work keeping our language alive.”

And the Mifflin Wistar Gibbs Study Room honours the contributions of the James Bay resident and merchant who, upon becoming the first black person elected to public office in B.C., served as a Victoria city councillor from 1866-69.

Of the GVPL’s 11 branches, four have commemorative names and seven reflect geographic locations. The new branch will be the second in Victoria and the 12th in the Greater Victoria Public Library system.

kristyn.anthony@vicnews.com

Just Posted

Squirrels star of guided walk in Saanich park

Going Squirrelly Guided Walk happening Sunday in Francis/King Regional Park

Victoria ranks 20th among 25 Canadian cities for Internet experience

Findings appear in a 2016 report from Canadian Internet Registration Authority

Victoria police seek witnesses after assault reported by man in wheelchair

Cops hope to speak with witnesses near Yates and Douglas on Jan. 13 between 1:45 and 3:15 p.m.

B.C. storm totals $37M in insured damages

The December storm wreaked havoc on B.C.’s south coast

Oak Bay realtor recalls sale of home where family was murdered

Home sellers not always required to disclose violent crimes

Trudeau says politicians shouldn’t prey on Canadians’ fears

The Prime Minister was speaking at a townhall in Ontario

Condo rental bans may be on way out with B.C. empty home tax

Many exemptions to tax, but annual declarations required

Greater Victoria Crime Stoppers wanted list for the week of Jan. 15

Greater Victoria Crime Stoppers is seeking the public’s help in locating the… Continue reading

POLL: Should people have to license their cats?

The Victoria Natural History Society has sent letters to 13 municipalities in… Continue reading

Body of Canadian miner found after African kidnapping

Kirk Woodman’s body was discovered 100 kilometres from the site where he worked for Progress Mineral Mining Company in Burkina Faso

Study finds more than half of food produced in Canada wasted

The study released Thursday is the world’s first to measure food waste using data from industry and other sources instead of estimates

Snowed-in Austrian nuns insist they’re staying put

Authorities have deployed heavy equipment to clear snow and fallen trees blocking the road to the monastery

B.C. chief says they didn’t give up rights for gas pipeline to be built

Hereditary chief: no elected band council or Crown authority has jurisdiction over Wet’suwet’en land

Thieves steal thousands from 140 Coast Capital Savings members

Online fraud tactics included phising and ‘brute force’ in November and December

Most Read
https://www.vicnews.com/news/victoria-honours-local-first-nations-in-naming-new-libary-branch/
www.vicnews.com
crawl=CC-MAIN-2019-04
130963
application/http; msgtype=response
sha1:5YGUTONT6TQPMGZIS7I5HADZOCWOPZTP
<urn:uuid:ea0314fc-8ccc-4d21-a282-43b96edeb87a>
2019-01-17T15:54:02Z
146.148.100.136
text/html
sha1:NRLX3RL4QYJG34XSKUUJMZUCMROKNH6X
<urn:uuid:22c9fcc4-7a47-4b0c-aaa5-c1c63a8f3c77>
https://www.vicnews.com/news/victoria-honours-local-first-nations-in-naming-new-libary-branch/
response
<urn:uuid:9f20b732-bbdb-43d1-a566-a78c86bc4478>
isPartOf: CC-MAIN-2019-04
publisher: Common Crawl
description: Wide crawl of the web for January 2019
operator: Common Crawl Admin (info@commoncrawl.org)
hostname: ip-10-35-204-242.ec2.internal
software: Apache Nutch 1.15 (modified, https://github.com/commoncrawl/nutch/)
robots: checked via crawler-commons 0.11-SNAPSHOT (https://github.com/crawler-commons/crawler-commons)
format: WARC File Format 1.1
conformsTo: http://iipc.github.io/warc-specifications/specifications/warc-format/warc-1.1/