About

Welcome to the Hul’q’umi’num’ placenames website, where we explore the places of the Hul’qumi’num’ world, our territory and beyond.

Knowing the history of where you come from, your connection to community, and the history associated with families and people is an important part of being hwulmuhw mustimuhw. With the passing of Elders, we are at risk of losing some of the knowledge about place, heritage, and ancestral connections
within our homelands. This website of Hul’q’umi’num’ placenames is part of our larger effort to keep Hul’q’umi’num’ language, culture, and knowledge alive and thriving for future generations.

The hwuhwilmuhw (Hul’q’umi’num’ people) have been naming spaces in our homeland since our first ancestors fell from the sky and landed in the Hul’q’umi’num’ territory. These names are unique to our homeland and reflect our culture, history, and continued presence here. We gave everything a name, including places we accessed, waterways, physical features, culturally significant landmarks, resource sites, historical locations, sites of supernatural importance and more. Many of our placenames carry important information about how we accessed that site, what creatures could be found there, or what our ancestors did there. For example, Burgoyne Bay, Saltspring Island is xwaaqw’um, “merganser place,” highlighting the importance of the merganser duck to Hul’q’umi’num’ people and the bay’s role as a significant habitat for their feeding and nesting.

Our placenames also reflect encounters that took place in our homeland. Mount Tzouhalem, for example, is shquw’utsun, “warm back or basking with its side to the sun” in Hul’q’umi’num’. It is also often referred to as p’ip’aam, “little swelled-up one.” This name comes from the time of our ancestors, when there was a great flood in our lands. To escape the rising waters, a frog climbed up the mountain. He was transformed into rock while on the mountain. p’ip’aam, or Frog Rock, can still be seen today, basking in the sun atop the mountain.

Our project team has gathered Hul’q’umi’num’ placenames for important places within our communities and worked to connect them to stories, oral histories, cultural knowledge, and hwulmuhw perspectives. These placenames help us to understand our homeland. They carry in them knowledge about how we have used our land, what it has meant to us in times past and present, and which creatures have used and shaped our homeland alongside us.

We invite you to explore the place names of the Hul’q’umi’num’ homeland with us! Each place name on this website is accompanied by an audio recording. For some placenames, we have also included a photograph, mapped location, cultural knowledge or narrative. You can browse the place names or search by region, geographical feature, or location by going to our “browse by map” tab.

Enjoy!

How to use the website:

GKP will write later

Our Thanks:

Funding for this project was provided by:

FPCC

Project Team

hay tseep q’u to the Elders and Knowledge Keepers who have so generously shared their knowledge and stories with us. This project could not have happened without their insight, knowledge, and guidance.
Late Elder Ruby Peter | Sti’tuma’t
Late Elder Delores Louie | Swustanulwut
Elder Wayne Charlie | Pul-hwuletse’
Elder George Seymour | Squtxulenuxw
Elder Merle Seymour | Tth’ulsul’t-hw

hay tseep q’u to the following:
Project Team, Technical Assistance, Editing:
Heather Harris | Qwulshamtunaat, B. Ruby Peter | Stitumatulwut, Donna Gerdts, Jennifer Bailey, Marki Sellers, Zack Gilkison, Rachel Sampson | Shiuqwtunaut, Sophia George | Stiiltunaat, Lawrence George | Stqeeye’paal’t-hw, and G Khalaji.