Prince Edward Island is a special place. Most people elsewhere in the world know of it as a place with nice beaches (true), a place that grows good potatoes (true), or the place from the Anne of Green Gables books (true).
It has been called Prince Edward Island (or P.E.I. as we call it) since it was renamed by British colonists in 1798. Before that was was called Île Saint-Jean (St. John’s Island) by French colonists. Before that, it was Epekwitk.
The name Epekwitk is from the language of the Miꞌkmaq People who have lived here for thousands of years. Epekwitk is pronounced ehb-uh-gwihd and has been anglicised as Abegweit.
Despite having watched every episode of The Crown, I don’t know much about His Royal Highness The Prince Edward, Duke of Kent and Strathearn, after whom our island is currently named. To be clear, we’re talking about the Duke of Kent and Strathearn born in 1767, not the Earl of Wessex who was born in 1964. There’s little risk of a British Royal Family member being forgotten by history or lacking in honours. Prince Edward has a whole section for “Titles, styles, honours and arms” on Wikipedia (along with a section on mistresses).
Unlike the legacy of His Royal Highness, the history and legacy (and the present and future) of the Miꞌkmaq People is at risk.
Thanks to efforts by the L’nuey group, PEI has been adding the Miꞌkmaw names for communities to the official signage (for example, Cape Egmont is Mntuapskuk). I’ve appreciated these new signs and would like to see us go much further.
Let’s restore the original name of our island. Let’s rename Prince Edward Island to Epekwitk.
It is worth noting that I’m not an expert on the etymology of PEI. I’m just a white man who was born here and read the Wikipedia page. I do not think we should take back the name as though it belongs to us. It really belongs to the Miꞌkmaq People of Epekwitk. Renaming this Canadian province is something I think we should to do honour the Miꞌkmaq People, but that honour should be theirs to accept or reject and to own and control.
It’s only worth making such a change if we’re also willing to make more substantial moves to respect the rights and cultures of indigenous people. A name change is a gesture. Gestures can be helpful and gestures can be hollow. To learn more about what else we can do, follow L’nuey on Twitter.
100%. Seriously, it’s not that hard to rename things. No one will remember the old name. WWF to WWE people. It’s like it never happened. The street next to ours was renamed from Amherst to Atataken for the same reasons you list above, and now everyone just calls it that, and feels good about it. These things shouldn’t be so controversial.
No.
Why stop there?
Let’s rename OTHER provinces according to their Canadian Indian names!
Then the WHOLE country too! Hah you come across as short sighted and not aware of historical erasure.
But jmo as my words won’t likely matter
This is a slippery slope I’m happy to slide down. I also don’t think Prince Edward is the one who needs to worry about “historical erasure.”
I’m down for renaming but I think Abegweit might be better then Epekwitk. Plenty of place names in this country are anglicised native names (Toronto, Ottawa, Ontario, Quebec, Canada…) and I think that’s a good middle ground.
While I agree that Prince Edward Island should be renamed, renaming it ‘Epekwitk’ is not a good idea, personally speaking.
At the arrival of the first Europeans to the region, it was inhabited by the Miꞌkmaq. Over the course of several hundred years, the island (and the maritime region overall) would be home to various peoples, the Miꞌkmaq, Acadians, French, the English. For the few centuries prior to the establishment of the provinces and Confederation, these groups often lived side by side and interacted with each other in contexts that were not violent or necessarily immoral. Beyond those groups there were of course smaller minority populations that also lived on the island, and to this day PEI is home to a diverse population.
My fear with terms like ‘Epekwitk’ is one of national identity and historical legacy. As a citizen of Canada who has ancestral and historical ties to the maritimes (I am descended directly from an Acadian family who settled in the maritime region in the mid 17th century), I do not identify as Miꞌkmaq, nor do I consider the Miꞌkmaq Nation to be my own.
While the The Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) and the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) both say that reclaiming Indigenous place names is an important part of addressing historical injustices, I think that not only is that not true, but not logically sound.
There is no movement in France to rename the country ‘Gaul’, even though the Gauls were the ancestral peoples of that country, for example. Perhaps there is a difference, however, in that the Gauls as a distinct cultural and national identity no longer exist. They went extinct in that sense long ago, while the Miꞌkmaq continue to live and practice their distinct cultural traits.
However, the current name of ‘France’ is derived from the term ‘Frank’, which is the name for a germanic tribe that migrated into the territory that now bears their name. In other words, these Frankish tribes ‘colonized’ the land, replaced the Gauls and Romans as the dominant group through gradual assimilation, and now, after over a thousand years, the Gallic identity is dead, and the land no longer bears its ancestral name of Gaul.
If France were to follow the UNDRIP and TRC recommendations, they would rename the country to something akin to ‘Gaul’. This, obviously, is not something that would ever happen, as the majority population of the country has no real connection to the ‘ancestral’ population that was the Gauls.
Similarly, renaming PEI to Epekwtik would be to completely disregard the other inhabitants and their historical ties to the region, who have just as strong a claim to the land as they do.
I am not arguing from a racist or anti-indigenous perspective, nor does my opposition to renaming it Epekwtik stem from some sort of historical denialism. I am simply pointing out that while historical truths of colonization, waves of migration, the preference of European settlers over the Miꞌkmaq by later polities did exist, it does not mean that it must define our path going forwards. Course correcting by swinging hard in the opposite direction seems just as demeaning as swinging hard the other way.
As a Canadian, I am proud of my nation, and am happy to live here, to participate in my civic duties and honour my own ancestors, just like the Miꞌkmaq honour their own. It is possible to not only reconciliate with indigenous nations and the crimes of the past, but also to honour our own heritage as Canadians. Too often do Canadians disregard our own history and the beliefs that founded this nation. Too often do Canadians deem characters of the their past as irrelevant because they had 18th or 19th century worldviews. Yes, historical figures operated with different philosophies and moralities, but that is not a justification to disregard the positives that they brought forth. Do Canadians forget we are one of the oldest of the few continuous democracies to have ever existed on planet earth? The creation of the social safety nets we so cherish now, from the healthcare system to income support programs (Canada Pension Plan, Canada Child Benefit, Old Age Security). All of these things were oftentimes brought to us by the same people we decry as vile and not deserving of any respect or our attention.
Perhaps the anglicization of the term to ‘Abegweit’ is suitable, but we shouldn’t limit ourselves to a binary between British colonial terms or Miꞌkmaq terms. We have a diverse and unique history, culture, and more modern dynamics to help inspire new names for places across Canada, should our goal continue to be to rename.
I don’t agree, Wat – but I appreciate your response.