Place, Language, and Memory in W̱SÁNEĆ Territory

“It appals us that the West can desire, extract and claim ownership of our ways of knowing, our imagery, the things we create and produce, and then simultaneously reject the people who created and developed those ideas and seek to deny them further opportunities to be creators of their own culture and own nations” (Tuhiwai-Smith, 2021, p.1).

Place is more than geography. Within W̱SÁNEĆ territory, land carries language, memory, spirituality, law, governance, and ancestral relationships that continue across generations. Sacred places such as PKOLS, ȽÁU,WELṈEW̱, and SṈIDȻEȽ are not simply locations on a map, but living sites of teaching, ceremony, relationality, and Indigenous presence.

The original W̱SÁNEĆ (Saanich) name for Tod Inlet is SṈIDȻEȽ, pronounced sneed-kwith in the SENĆOŦEN language, meaning “Place of the Blue Grouse.” SṈIDȻEȽ was historically the winter village of the W̱SÁNEĆ peoples, as communities moved between different villages and places according to the seasonal round calendar.

SṈIDȻEȽ cannot be understood separately from PKOLS (colonially known as Mount Douglas) and ȽÁU,WELṈEW̱ (colonially known as John Dean Park). Together, these places form interconnected sites of memory, governance, spirituality, and survival within W̱SÁNEĆ territory.

The laws of our people are called EN SKAU, the law of the drum. The drum, traditionally made from deer hide and formed in a circle, represents relationality, reciprocity, and the interconnectedness of all living beings. Within both Kwakiutl and W̱SÁNEĆ teachings, deer are referred to as “grandson,” recognizing deer not as resources, but as living beings deserving of respect and reciprocity. Before hunting, prayers are offered to honour the deer and acknowledge this sacred relationship. These teachings reflect Indigenous legal orders grounded in respect, responsibility, and balance with the natural world.

ȽÁU,WELṈEW̱ is also significant within W̱SÁNEĆ oral history as the place connected to the great flood prophecy. Elders received visions and dreams warning communities of a devastating flood. While many dismissed these teachings, some Elders listened carefully to ancestral guidance and prepared cedar ropes tied to the trees for survival. When the flood eventually came, those who listened to the teachings survived by anchoring themselves to the cedar trees. Today, ȽÁU,WELṈEW̱ remains a place where many W̱SÁNEĆ peoples continue to connect spiritually with ancestors, ceremony, prayer, and land-based teachings.

One day, while paddling back from the summer village in canoes, W̱SÁNEĆ peoples witnessed the transformation of SṈIDȻEȽ through colonial industrial expansion as the Butchart Cement Factory overtook the area. This marked another moment in which Indigenous relationships to land were disrupted through extraction, privatization, and settler colonial occupation. This history reflects Tuhiwai Smith’s (2021) argument that colonial systems often extract Indigenous knowledge, imagery, lands, and resources while simultaneously marginalizing Indigenous peoples themselves.

There is a story from an Elder from the W̱SÁNEĆ community. He shares, while at the top of what is known by the W̱SÁNEĆ communities as PKOLS colonially known as Mount Doug, “this is where the Douglas Treaty was signed” (Anderson, 2026). As we walked along the path and up Mount Doug we put out a prayer as Elder sang a sacred song and played the drum. He shares, “the songs are prayer, these are sacred songs” (Anderson, 2026). I felt his beautiful prayer as we raised our hands to Creator we prayed together. This connection we have with the land is as Elder shares, “the land is family, how could you ever think of selling your family” (Anderson, 2026). The significance of Mount Douglas situated in Victoria, BC is an important piece of land as this is where the W̱SÁNEĆ community fished and harvested bark of the douglas fir trees. This was also our home. Mount Douglas the real name is PKOLS [pq̕áls], which means ‘White Head’.

It was not long before the British Crown tried to exercise its sovereignty over Indigenous peoples and our lands - which became the driving force behind the Douglas Treaties of 1850 - 1854 on Vancouver Island (Canada First Nations, 2014). Douglas deviated from his instructions in England in his negotiations with the Indigenous peoples (Canada First Nations, 2014). It is alleged that colonial principles of land ownership were used to force Indigenous peoples to sign treaties in which they were domesticated in Canada (Canada First Nations, 2014). The colonial vision of the domestication of Indigenous peoples and their rights is the principal objective of this policy and it has a history of imperial rule in British Columbia (Hunter & Wegner, 202; Canada First Nations, 2014). The SENĆOŦEN Kwakwala, and Lekwungen are the main languages of coastal Indigenous peoples in Greater Victoria.

The district of Saanich derived its name from the W̱SÁNEĆ peoples. Saanich neighborhood, places like Royal Oak neighborhood and houses are located on the traditional territory of the W̱SÁNEĆ peoples. The first peoples, W̱SÁNEĆ, have lived here since time immemorial and our history in the area is long and rich. For the people of Lekwungen and W̱SÁNEĆ, place names not only serve as place names, but also contain embedded meanings and stories. Saanich place names contain the history, values and ideology of W̱SÁNEĆ peoples. The landscape of the W̱SÁNEĆ has changed dramatically since the arrival of the colonists in the 19th century, and this has had an obvious impact on the way people continue to relate to the W̱SÁNEĆ peoples.

The effects of colonization remain when the language is at risk of dying out due to the legacy and impacts of the Indian residential schools. The remaining fluent speakers of the W̱SÁNEĆ peoples are mostly older adults, many of whom have died. This destruction of language was intentional and further marginalizes us as people. Why destroy our language? This gave us power as people, and without our language, our culture is closer to dissipating. This is the objective that we lose our culture and our ways so that we can no longer remember who we are as people. There remains a great presence of the W̱SÁNEĆ peoples on the lands as the children from our communities are enrolled in the ȽÁU, WELṈEW̱ Tribal School. These lands we visit as we understand and teach to our young the importance of reclaiming these sacred sites of our people. Our presence on the land is, as one Elder shares, "just like the Europeans have churches, these lands are where we connect with Creator and talk to ancestors" (Anderson, 2026). Our presence on the land is significant as we come to these places like PKOLS (Mount Doug), ȽÁU, WELṈEW̱ (John Dean Park), SṈIDȻEȽ (Tod Inlet); we come here to talk to our ancestors, to pray, to build a fire, to teach community, and to pass down these teachings onto our children. But they are teachings that others can benefit from as well, which is why my Elder wanted me to share our stories.

https://video.wixstatic.com/video/611c1c_d9d00dd8ac9243a7990feb72e44cb375/1080p/mp4/file.mp4

References

Anderson, A. (2026, May 23). W̱SÁNEĆ Elder. personal.

Canada First Nations. (2014, September 25). 14 Douglas Treaties of 1850-1854. Canada First Nations. https://www.first-nations.info/14-douglas-treaties-1850-1854.html.

Hunter, A., & Wegner, N. (2021). POLS 222.3: Indigenous Governance and Politics. POLS 2223 Indigenous Governance and Politics. https://sites.usask.ca/pols222/learning-modules/module-3-colonialism/.

Tuhiwai-Smith, L. (2021). Decolonizing methodologies: research and indigenous peoples. Zed Books.