On National Day for Truth and Reconciliation, the Musqueam First Nation in Vancouver had a moving ceremony to reveal the new name that will shortly take the place of a distressing historical marker.
According to Musqueam elder Larry Grant, “Trutch represents the climax of all the difficulties that bring forward Truth and Reconciliation Day.”
B. C. Trutch Street is thus named.
runs between 18th and 1st Avenues on the west side of the city in the unceded tribal territory of the Musqueam people. Joseph Trutch was the city’s first lieutenant governor.
Trutch, who came to the territory in 1859 and rose to the position of chief commissioner of land and works for British Columbia in the 1860s, was regarded as a virulent racist.
The Musqueam Indian Band claims that Trutch treated First Nations people with open hostility, rejected the existence of Aboriginal rights, and refused to recognise previously established Indian Reserves, which caused reserves to disappear across the province.
According to Grant, the word Trutch is connected to the pain caused by colonial regimes and residential institutions.
Some of the survivors who return home don’t recognise their relatives, according to Grant.
Grant, who oversees the Musqueams’ division of language and culture, gave the opening remarks on Friday.
Alec Guerin and Johnny Louis, two Musqueam members, were among the four witnesses called to the ritual to observe and record the proceedings for future generations. Johnny Louis also disclosed for the first time his struggle with alcoholism.
Louis addressed the gathering, “I went through hell because of what happened to us in residential school.
Chief Wayne Sparrow recalls, “He turned to booze and almost killed himself attempting to cover those emotions.”
The elected leader of the Musqueam First Nation claimed that in order to preserve Louis, his people had to arrange an intervention.
After the renaming ceremony, Sparrow spoke with Global News and said, “We had to go to his house and take the bottle away from him and take his wallet away from him or else he wouldn’t be here with us today.”
“He was one of the people who didn’t want to talk about residential school, and for him to get out in front of our community and offer a small piece of his story is a major step forward – and that’s what reconciliation is,” said the speaker.
Due to Trutch’s racist tactics against Indigenous people, Vancouver city council approved mayor Kennedy Stewart’s motion to rename the route “Toward Reconciliation” in July 2021.
Because of Trutch Street’s terrible past in this province, Chief Wayne Sparrow claimed to be just tired of using it to access the reserve, Stewart said in an interview on Friday.
The new name was given by Grant as Musqueamview Street in English and xwmkwymasm in hnqminm, the Musqueam language.
The other two witnesses to the renaming were Stewart and municipal manager Paul Mochrie, with the mayor admitting that his own grandpa was a bigot.
Stewart acknowledged his tremendous embarrassment at being a colonizer’s ancestor after the city of Vancouver received a new name.
“I hope that every time someone else passes down this street, they stop to consider it, learn the name in hnqminm, and then comprehend the breadth and duration of this culture.”
Lance Campbell, a member of the Musqueam First Nation, said the designation was long overdue and an honour.
The phrase “words are fantastic but when they show up in their presence, it works for all of us and it’s little baby steps – and it’s come forward”
Although it took a while, Sparrow continued, “it was tremendously satisfying and inspiring for our community.
The cost of replacing signs, addresses, and land titles is unknown, but given that the Musqueam First Nation claims to have been paying the price for more than 150 years, it is anticipated to be a small expense.
Former Trutch Street in Vancouver is now Musqueamview and xwmkwymasm in hnqminm.
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