Languages

Each year on Plaza Bridge, near where we left off yesterday, the government sets up a series of display panels on a specific theme from early summer into October. This year the theme has been on indigenous languages, some of which are becoming less and less used, as well as place names. They include interpretive panels below each photograph.

Akami-Uapishk-KakKasuak-Mealy Mountains National Park Reserve is in Newfoundland and Labrador, and the name combines two indigenous languages.

Some languages are more widespread than others.

Tracadie is a Mi'kmaw word.

Pingualuit Crater is in Quebec, with the name having its origins in the Inuktitut language.

Auyuittuq National Park is in Nunavut. The word means the place that never melts in Inuktitut.

Wendake means the island in the Wendat language. The motif of a sky woman coming from the stars and resting on a turtle is a common theme in Indigenous belief.

 

This commanding landscape is Collines Cheminis. Anishinaabe people hold the place as significant for their culture, and it means 'big island'. 

An old painting of the Ottawa River, before the Canal was built, seen from what is now the Gatineau shore.

Akwesasne is a community of the Mohawk people. We'll continue here tomorrow.