05/31/2026
June is National Indigenous History Month in the land colonially known as "Canada." This is a time to unlearn our whitewashed history, and to make visible the valuable histories, heritage, and diversity of First Nations, Métis and Inuit people—our nation's Indigenous people.
The Indigenous people living here did not have a single word or label identifying this place as a country; each group had their own territory, with their own language, culture and traditions, and their own established systems of governance.
So how did this nation get its name? Well, the prevailing explanation seems to put it down to linguistic ignorance.
In 1535, as a French explorer was trying to get un-lost on his sailing journey, a St. Lawrence Iroquoian Indigenous person helped point him in the direction of the "kanata"—the town, or main settlement.
Without considering that words mean things in other languages, the Frenchman conceived of this word not just as the town in question, but as a mental reference for the entirety of the land unknown to him and the diverse peoples foreign to him.
And thus, the identity of this land mass was born from cross-cultural ignorance and colonial imposition.
This is a pattern that would continue to perpetuate itself for centuries upon centuries. In fact, the problem would only compound exponentially.
As the early European settlers took root upon different corners of this land mass, introducing diseases and enforcing control over the existing inhabitants and their established governance systems, reality was continually reinterpreted by European perspectives.
History was continually shaped by European voices.
Centuries upon centuries of Indigenous suffering, generations upon generations of family and community trauma, were drowned out by a new and violent system built on racism and settler supremacy.
This month, we honour the truths, histories, lands, waters, cultures, languages, and identities of our First Nations, Métis and Inuit people.
The land we think of as a single unified country, "Canada," can be likened to a continent (imagine thinking of "Asia," "Europe" or "Africa" as a country), with different countries and hundreds of languages and ethnic groups.
To the Indigenous people, the northern part of this continent is Inuit Nunangat, land of the Inuit. And the southern part of this continent (including the lands south of the national border, down to Mexico and parts of Central America), may be referred to today as Turtle Island in English, minihstik in Cree, or various other local terms in each language.
The province we know as "British Columbia" is home to more than 200 Nations, with 36—yes, thirty six—languages.
As we navigate our own journeys of reframing our knowledge and history of our homeland, it is important to keep an open mind and to be prepared to have our assumptions challenged. This includes our fundamental assumptions around land, governance, borders, and ways of knowing, thinking and being.
Do you know whose land you reside on? You can find out at: https://native-land.ca/
The decolonial map of Turtle Island, pictured in this post, is from The Decolonial Atlas, created over 9 years with the help of hundreds of Elders, Knowledge Keepers and Language Keepers.
(Note the map is oriented East!)
First Nations, Métis and Inuit families—what is something you wish settlers and immigrants could know about your history, nation, or heritage?
