Technolandy

Day 130 (of 2025/26) Names are important ~ a share from our asynchronous assembly celebrating the 10th anniversary of Tla’amin Day

Names are important. It’s why I always work to pronounce my students and staffs names correctly with appreciation for time and patience for me to get it right when sometimes I’m not so good at getting some letter blends quite right.

But names matter as they help with creating connections and establishing positive relationships.

Likewise it is important when naming the places in which we live work and learn – our school district made a name change a few years back to reflect qathet – the region on which our schools physically reside. 

We can reflect how change can be uncomfortable when our neighbours in the lower mainland recently closed the patullo bridge, under whose shadow I spent many summers, and have opened the stal̕əw̓asəm (pronounced stah-low-wuh-sum – or as beautilfully articulated in a video: it’s about cars and rush hour – stall? Oh, awesome!) bridge. It helped to show that as much as we are moving forward with truth and reconciliation, even the naming of things, let along places and people comes with a need for more stories.  And if curious, FirstVoices.com has a wide range of shares – from words to even the ‘alphabet’ for those curious… start here: https://www.firstvoices.com/tlaamin

I encourage our students who, as we are a Provincial Online Learning School, live and learn throughout the province to take some time and learn the stories of names in their local areas, because names and namings matter.

A message from hegus John Hackett: https://www.tlaaminnation.com/from-self-government-to-self-determination-the-first-ten-years-the-next-ten-years/

Our afternoon concluded with a sharing of “namesake” – a documentary about names and Tla’amin … really enjoyed the program. Hope it gets on a streaming service soon. I’ll comment more when it is widely available! But it nicely matched up with my theme on the power of names… 🧡

Haha – I did laugh when an elder acknowledged a language sound that is challenging for some (me!!). Patience and time for practice!