Welcome to beautiful Knucklehead City

Pictured: Historically picturesque Townsite, one of the many unique neighbourhoods in Powell River

ABBY FRANCIS

Last Word

In qL’s 2022 “Best of qathet” contest, the top three alternative names for the City were ‘qathet,’ ‘tiskwat,’ and ‘Powell River.’

However, all three of these names are boring.

If the City were renamed to ‘qathet,’ both the Regional District and City would be in the same position they were in four years ago; confusion between City and Regional District  – the very reason why the Regional District changed its name in the first place. tiskwat came second. tiskwat would be a great possible name for Townsite, but not fitting for the whole City. For one, tiskwat was the very place Tla’amin had been removed from, second it is the newly established name of the town’s beloved mill, which now lies empty. tiskwat has a lot of heavy feelings behind it, and because of that, it does not represent the City well.

The response that came in third was “Powell River” or “Keep it Powell River.”

Really?

The City has an opportunity to change its future – not its past. Naming something is exciting, whether it’s a baby, a pet, or a car, and I mean how often do you get to name an entire city? I’m sure we can do a lot better than ‘Powell River.’

To prove that we can come up with better names, I read through Tla’amin’s traditional place names; names we currently call lakes, bays, mountains, creeks, and rivers today; considered different wildlife species in qathet; and asked friends what they thought would be a good name.

Here are my top three alternative names for Powell River.

Welcome to the City of Little Whale, BC.

A logo could feature the City’s current colors of yellow, blue, and green and instead of the sun and mountains, there could be little green trees and an orca jumping out of the water, maybe a salmon too. The orca and salmon could be in a Tla’amin art style and collaborated on with Nation artists.

I found the name ‘Little Whale’ after looking at Tla’amin place names for different areas in qathet; Stillwater was known as Qwoqwness, a Tla’amin and shíshálh word for ‘little whale.’

The reason why ‘Little Whale’ would be a great name for the City, really comes down to a platform this town lives on: Facebook.

Throughout the year, summer especially, there is always someone who posts to one of the many community groups, letting people know that there are “whales out front!” Whether it be dolphins, orcas, humpbacks, gray whales, or other porpoises, whale watching is something that brings the community together.

Another reason why ‘Little Whale’ works great is because there is a Tla’amin translation, meaning the spelling of little whale in Tla’amin can be displayed on signs, or logos etc.

Little Whale – Qwoqwness represents the community’s kindness, acknowledges Tla’amin language, and represents an animal rather than a person. Still not convinced? Little Whale has French spelling too: Petite Baleine.

The qathet region brings tourists in because of its many lakes, rivers, mountains, and well forested watersheds; indeed, our City is currently named after one of these very rivers.

While Powell River and Powell Lake are arguably the most popular spots in the summer, ‘Powell’ is hurtful. So what are our other options that keep that geographical sense?

Well, the second most popular spot seems to be a mountain range… the Knuckleheads.

The City of Knuckleheads, a light-hearted name, after a popular geographical place. But ‘Knucklehead City’ would be offensive to some folks.

In that sense, Knucklehead City is kind of like the name Powell. Sure there’s no intention behind ‘Knucklehead’ to insult anyone – it’s just the name of a mountain range, but to others it is an insult and it makes them feel uncomfortable. Because of this, naming the city after the Knuckleheads is a bad idea.

However, qathet has over 100 different lakes, as well as dozens of different mountains and bays we could pick from, and hopefully, said name would have an ayajuthem version, too.

What are some of these places?

Granite Lake, Haslam Lake, Spire Lake, Myrtle Rock, Paradise Valley, Tin Hat mountain, Shoe Lake (yes, qathet has a Shoe Lake), Lost Lake, Dodd Lake, Khartoum Lake, Mount Mahony and you guessed it – so many more.

We also have trails, such as Sweetwater or Appleton Creek. There are really so many options.

The final name I have come up with is the City of Kokanee, ‘where all our rivers are dammed.’

For everyone who doesn’t obsess over salmon the way I do, a kokanee is a landlocked sockeye salmon. We have these fish in Powell Lake, Unwin Lake, and the Lois Lake watershed. All three of these lakes have been dammed.

As with Little Whale, choosing Kokanee, BC would name the city after a creature rather than a person.

qathet is full of anglers, and the word ‘kokanee’ sounds cool (though it is a shuswap word, rather than Tla’amin). If Salmon Arm weren’t already a City name, I would have tried to come up with something similar to that.

Kokanee are fish that have adapted to a new way of living under a sudden change in environment.

Powell River is a city that thrived on the mill for decades, until this year with its permanent closure. What do we do? We adapt.

As mentioned many times before, Powell River is a tourist town, with a very rich history. Whether you are Indigenous or non-Indigenous, family histories go back generations and generations. We can add to this history by creating a new name for our beloved town.