With great interest, I read Neil Godbout’s recent editorial regarding the naming of the new high school in the Hart. I am not surprised with how the process played out, but I am disappointed.
Twenty-five years ago, this month, I was working with my lawyer to decide on a name for my new consulting business. Pondering this, I looked at my bookshelf and saw The Central Carrier Bilingual Dictionary. I took a quick spin through the book and saw the word shas, “the grizzly bear.”
I reckoned that if I would be working in the Carrier territory, I should honour their culture by utilizing something from their culture. Hence, I picked shas, changing it slightly to Shazz, and bingo, we had a name for the business.
In this part of the world, so many things are named after old white guys like me. I believe it is time to change that and begin examining how we can get more creative while being mindful of where we live, particularly with the knowledge that most of British Columbia is unceded First Nation land.
Larry Leischner
Youbou, B.C.
