U of T Scarborough is Honouring Indigenous Culture with New Names for Four Campus Spaces - University of Toronto Magazine
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Prof. Tahohtharátye Joe Brant. Photo by Ebti Nabag

U of T Scarborough is Honouring Indigenous Culture with New Names for Four Campus Spaces

The names reflect a distinct world view and carry centuries of knowledge, says Prof. Tahohtharátye Joe Brant

U of T Scarborough enlisted the help of Indigenous language speakers to rename four spaces on the campus, as part of an initiative to enhance the Indigenous presence in the university and beyond.

For Tahohtharátye Joe Brant, 1 who worked on the project and is an assistant professor with the Centre for Indigenous Studies and department of linguistics, the effort serves a valuable purpose in helping to revitalize Indigenous languages and cultures.

“Placenaming creates opportunities to explore relationships between Indigenous nations and the current stewards of the land,” he says.

Brant translated “Rock Walk,” a landscaped space featuring different geological specimens, to “Tsi Yonennyake’tóhton,” which means “the place where the rocks protrude.” Also assigned new names were a building, 2 a walking path 3 and an accessible trail. 4

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Angled view of a rectangular building made of two floors of windows spanning three rows with two rows of white squares above and below the windows
Kina Wiiya Enadong Building (formerly the Management Wing Building), which in the Anishinaabemowin language means "Everyone Spirit Mind." The idea, from Elder Josh Eshkawogan, is based on the ethos developed for the building that it represent the “Gift of Multiple Perspectives.”
Ma Moosh Ka Win Valley Trail (formerly Valley Land Trail), which is a Cree name that reflects the ethos of people coming together with the land for healing or restoration. The name was proposed in consultation with Elders Josh Eshkawogan and Andrew Wesley.
Bird's eye view of a walkway with a concrete, Brutalist-style building on the left and a copper-coloured building on the right
Ilinniaqtiup Aqqutinga (formerly Scholar’s Walk), which in Inuktitut refers to students who walk the path of education for their future. This renaming was chosen by Knowledge Keeper Naulaq LeDrew, a member of UTSC’s (and U of T’s) Elders’ Circle.
Different coloured granite boulders on grass, next to shrubs and a concrete pathway
Tahohtharátye Joe Brant translated “Rock Walk,” a landscaped space featuring different geological specimens, to “Tsi Yonennyake’tóhton,” which means “the place where the rocks protrude.” All photos by Don Campbell

Brant, who has been studying the Mohawk language (Onkwehonwehnéha) since he was in elementary school, hopes that the renaming will spark interest among students and faculty about the Mohawk language, their responsibility to the land and the Six Nations of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy, as well as that group’s historical dislocation. He notes that it is a Mohawk word – Aterón:to – that gave us the modern-day Toronto. “Language is a vessel. It’s the embodiment, the carrier of millennia of collected knowledge and experiences of a people,” he says.

Language also represents a world view. Brant gives an example: the Mohawk word yoyánere, which translates loosely to English as “it’s good.” The literal translation, however, is “it is within the pathway.” Rather than ascribing a quality, such as goodness, to a person or thing, Mohawk implies that goodness is found in being part of a collective pathway. In other words, there is a way of being in the world, and this person (or thing) has found this pathway.

“Almost every word in our language comes with a relationship,” says Brant. “You’re speaking about something that has influenced you or the relationship you have with something – or someone.”

Yet this world view – and that of many other Indigenous languages – is becoming increasingly rare. Mohawk had about 640 fluent speakers in Canada in 2021. Other Indigenous languages such as Ktunaxa and Tahltan are equally endangered, with fewer than 700 speakers each.

Carol Ducharme, interim assistant director of Indigenous Initiatives at U of T Scarborough, says placenaming is part of a broader effort to revitalize both Indigenous language and culture. “It represents a reminder of the ancestral and spiritual connection Indigenous people have to the land.”

This initiative arises out of Answering the Call: Wecheehetowin (U of T’s 2017 response to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission), which requested a process to identify and name appropriate spaces on the three campuses using Indigenous languages.

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