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SPECIAL REPORT

The Rematriation of Indigenous Place Names

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Across Canada and around the world, Indigenous peoples are working toward the reclamation and rematriation of Indigenous place names, rooted in their governance principles, values, and legal orders.

In The Rematriation of Indigenous Place Names, authors Christina Gray and Andrew Ambers illustrate how the rematriation practices shared among Dene, Ts’msyen, and Kwakwaka’wakw communities – truth-telling, gifting, and witnessing – can work to activate legal responsibilities, restore right relationships, and reaffirm
Indigenous laws.

Despite the myriad ways Canadian law may constrain or selectively recognize Indigenous legal authority, rematriation and place-naming are important corrective tools. In legal contexts where multi-jurisdictional legal systems overlap, intersect, and oftentimes conflict, place names offer remedies, rooted within Indigenous
legal orders.

This Special Report explores the process and outcomes of generating and
re-asserting (re-matriating) place names in a Ts’msyen, Dene, and  Kwakwaka’wakw perspective, providing a resource to expand that work in B.C. and across
the country.

KEY QUESTIONS

Can Indigenous place names – and the processes to restore them – revitalize Indigenous law?

Related Resources

Indigenous Peoples’ choice to name and rename is deeply embedded in community-based decisions to reawaken responsibilities, rights, and jurisdiction. It is a process that is rooted in Indigenous legal orders.

- Christina Gray and Andrew Ambers
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author

Christina Gray

Christina Gray

Dene and Ts’msyen citizen

author

Andrew Ambers

Andrew Ambers

Kwakwa̱ka̱ʼwakw, ‘Namgis and Ma’amtagila First Nations

artist

Marianne Nicolson

Marianne Nicolson

Kwakwa̱ka̱ʼwakw, Musgamakw Dzawada’enuxw Nations