Victoria’s newest library branch will be opening in James Bay in early 2018, and City Council has decided to give it a unique First Nations name: the sxʷeŋ’xʷəŋ taŋ’exw James Bay Branch.
sxʷeŋ’xʷəŋ taŋ’exw – pronounced s-hweng hw-ung tongue-oo-hw – is the Lekwungen name for James Bay.
Listen to the pronunciation by Songhees Nation Elder Dr. Elmer Seniemten George:
Name Chosen from Hundreds of Submissions
To select the branch name, the City of Victoria held a Name That Library campaign, which received more than 600 submissions. The greatest support was for a First Nations name.
City Council consulted with the Songhees and Esquimalt Nations on the name.
In addition to naming the branch, City Council also named the two meeting rooms:
- The Dr. Elmer Seniemten George M.S.M. Community Room (pronounced Sen-eem-ten)
- The Songhees and Esquimalt Nations jointly put forward Dr. Elmer Seniemten George’s name to honour the Songhees Elder, who is one of the few remaining fluent speakers of Lekwungen, a dialect of the Northern Straits Salish Peoples. He stewards the survival not only of the language, but also of the traditional teachings and culture embedded in the words.
- The Mifflin Wistar Gibbs Study Room (pronounced Wis-ter).
- City Council honoured the collaborative contributions of Mifflin Wistar Gibbs by naming the library’s study room after this James Bay resident and local merchant, who served as a Victoria City Councillor from 1866 – 1869. In 2016, the City declared November 19 “Mifflin Wistar Gibbs Day” in honour of Gibbs becoming the first black person elected to public office in British Columbia the same day in 1866. The BC Black History Awareness Society and members of the community submitted his name for consideration.
