By Armchair Mayor

ROTHENBURGER: Tongue-twister name for new trail could be a good thing

Nov 10, 2018 | 2:43 AM

KAMLOOPS -HAVE YOU TRIED OUT the new Xget’tem’ Trail? That’s the name of the multi-use paved path from Sahali to the bottom of Peterson Creek Park. It means Deep Valley in Sepwépemc. At the official opening of the trail this week, Tk’emlúps te Secwépemc councillor Jeanette Jules explained how to pronounce it.

You’re supposed to begin with an X but not our kind of an X. To me it’s more like a gargling sound in the back of your throat — or a noise akin to having something stuck in there that you want to get rid of. Then you finish up with a word that sounds like “Hottem.” You may wonder why the City, in consultation with TteS, would choose an unpronounceable name, especially one that bears no obvious resemblance to the spelling, for a $3.7 million amenity mostly paid for with City tax dollars.

Especially since it will most likely continue to be known as the “Peterson Creek Pathway.” Some have already defiantly declared they’ll continue to call it that.

The Sepwépemc name for it is part of the current focus on reconciliation. We’ve even taken it to the extent of renaming things that already had perfectly good names.

I draw your attention, as an example, to the Roderick Haig Brown Provincial Park, which is now officially named Tsútswecw Provincial Park or, in English, Many Rivers Provincial Park. That, in my view, was an absurd thing to do, demeaning the memory of accomplished conservationist Roderick Haig Brown.

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This new City pathway is a different kind of situation, though. Peterson Creek is not being renamed, at least not yet. Neither is Peterson Creek Park. They continue to bear the name of John Peterson, the pioneer who once owned half of Kamloops including the creek and the surrounding land.

Coun. Jules explained that the Sepwépemc people traversed up and down the creek long before the Hudson’s Bay Company established forts and fur brigade trails around here. But this new paved pathway with people walking and bicycles zooming by is a new creation.

Since it didn’t exist before, it’s perfectly OK to give it any name that pleases the powers that be.

There are, after all, plentiful geographic locations on the TteS reserve that have English-language names, and a lot of others with Anglicized indigenous names. Sun Rivers and Schiedam Flats, Shuswap Road, etc. So a facility with a Sepwépemc name in the middle of the city is hardly radical.

But what are we whose tongues aren’t adept at other languages to do? Well, there’s an upside to the fact the name doesn’t come trippingly to our tongues.

Culture and history are inextricably linked to language. We can’t understand another culture until we can speak the language or, at least, be familiar with it. 

First Nations people have been in danger for a long time of losing both. Their world has changed dramatically since the first fur traders showed up at the meeting of the waters in the early 1800s. The modern “technology” of the European settlers quickly overtook the traditional ways of life of the inhabitants who were already here. Horses transformed the way they got from one place to another. Later the automobile took the place of the horse and buggy, and the Internet has fundamentally changed day to day life for all of us.

Language became a casualty to this change. It wasn’t long ago when even indigenous leaders struggled to learn a few key phrases of their hereditary language that they could use on ceremonial occasions.

With the development of written versions of these languages, they’re making a comeback.

Some bands have been able to stave off the extinguishment of their languages by getting their young people interested in them.

A good next step would be for non-indigenous folks to embrace those languages as well. Imagine, if we could speak each other’s language, how much less the temptation would be to stereotype, judge or condemn.

In Kamloops, truly laudable efforts are being made to bridge the gap between cultures and to cooperate on issues and projects. The old red bridge is more than a pile of wooden piers andtimbers — it’s symbolic of a shared history.

But we can do so much better. What if City council and other community leaders learned at least some basics of the Sepwépemc language?

Already, we’re moving past the acknowledgement at public events of being on the territory of such-and-such a First Nation. The TteS chief is now commonly addressed as kúkwpi7, or Kukpi, by City and provincial officials, who often also attempt afew words of greeting in Sepwépemc.

It’s not such a stretch, is it, to think we could all learn basic pronunciation techniques, to speak a few full sentences? Maybe it is, in a world where adding the word Estíl to city stop signs is illegal under the Motor Vehicle Act. (Then-councillor Donovan Cavers proposed it a few years ago, in keeping with what’s done at TRU and on TteS lands. Wouldn’t it be nice to put both Estíland Arrete on all those stop signs?)

We can embrace cultural and language differences, or shun them.

“Xget’tem Trail,” if we think of it in a positive way rather than making light of it or complaining about it, represents an opportunity. Maybe the start of something more significant.

Let’s at least start with learning how to pronounce it. Beats sitting around crabbing about how much it cost.

Mel Rothenburger is a former mayor of Kamloops and newspaper editor. He publishes the ArmchairMayor.ca opinion website, and is a director on the Thompson-Nicola Regional District board. He can be reached at mrothenburger@armchairmayor.ca.