Vancouver elementary school renamed wek̓ʷan̓əs tə syaqʷəm in Musqueam name gifting ceremony
Sir Matthew Begbie Elementary School in East Vancouver has been renamed wek̓ʷan̓əs tə syaqʷəm, meaning "the sun has risen" in the hən̓q̓əmin̓əm̓ dialect of the Musqueam people.
The name was gifted to the school in a ceremony led by Victor Guerin, Musqueam Band member. wek̓ʷan̓əs tə syaqʷəm is a nod to the neighbourhood where the school is located, originally known as Vancouver Sunrise. The name's pronunciation can be heard in this YouTube clip featuring Musqueam Elder Larry Grant.
The school was originally named for the first Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of British Columbia.
Matthew Begbie was known as the hanging judge for presiding over the 1864 murder trial of five Tsilhqot'in chiefs in the Chilcotin War. The five were found guilty by a jury of white miners and hanged. A sixth chief was executed the following year.
"There was no Indigenous person on that jury," said Grant at the school renaming ceremony.
"They were not tried by peers, they were tried by another group of people who were trying to get rid of the Indians so they could get at the gold.
"This is the thing you need to remember about truth and reconciliation ... If you do not have the truth it is meaningless. It is not reconciliation," he said.
In 2014, then-premier Christy Clark exonerated the six chiefs.
The renaming coincides with the completion of a new school building, touted as the first seismically safe school in the province built with Canadian mass timber.
There has been a growing movement to reconsider the names of some Vancouver schools that do not reflect current attitudes and knowledge of past events and colonialism.
Gladstone Secondary School and Lord Strathcona Elementary School have also been mentioned as candidates for renaming.
A 2021 CBC News analysis of every school name in B.C. showed that 65 of the 98 school names in Vancouver honoured people — 26 of those prominent Britons — including four prime ministers, four queens, and three generals.
Vancouver historian John Atkin said the city's disproportionate share of colonial school names arose from the mindset of political leaders in the early 20th century, when population was booming and schools needed to be created and named.
"They would be looking back to a place like Britain and its influence … and then thinking, 'How do I reinforce that here?'" said Atkin in 2021.
"A lot of these names carry baggage that we really shouldn't be celebrating. And even if someone's forgotten the meaning of the name, it's still there."
In 2017, the former Sir William Macdonald Elementary in East Vancouver was renamed Xpey' Elementary in recognition of its status as the Vancouver School Board's District Aboriginal Focus School. Xpey' means "cedar" in hən̓q̓əmin̓əm̓ .
