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This week, the province of B.C. assigned a name to the newest bridge over the Fraser River. It will be called the stal̕əw̓asəm Bridge.

This follows only a few months after the City of Vancouver renamed the former Trutch Street to šxʷməθkʷəy̓əmasəm. Metro Vancouver is also home to wək̓ʷan̓əs tə syaqʷəm elementary school, renamed in 2022.

Just behind B.C.’s Parliament Buildings, is the sxʷeŋxʷəŋ təŋəxʷ public library, renamed in 2018.

Assigning Indigenous words to place names is nothing new in B.C. Three of the province’s communities (Saanich, Coquitlam and Kelowna) bear Indigenous-inspired names.

It’s also nothing new for modern governments to rename places with Indigenous names. The Queen Charlotte Islands started appearing on maps as Haida Gwaii in 2010, and the various inl

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