New street in Port Alberni, B.C., is a step to reconciliation for Vancouver Island city

Brandy Lauder is confident that within a generation, residents of Port Alberni, B.C., will be comfortable with the Nuu-chah-nulth language — and it will have started with Nuupts' Ikapis Way. 

Nuupts' Ikapis means "one tree on the beach" and is the name of a former village at the mouth of the Somass River where Port Alberni is located on Vancouver Island. It's also the name of the city's newest street. 

To make sure it sticks, the city is encouraging people to learn how to properly pronounce Nuupts' Ikapis: noopt-seek-cupis.

Lauder, an elected councillor with the Hupačasath First Nation, serves on Port Alberni's reconciliation committee which wanted to familiarize residents with the Nuu-chah-nulth language of the two local First Nations — the Hupačasath and Tseshaht. Place names are a start. 

"We wanted to ease people into the Nuu-chah-nulth language," says Lauder, "so it would be visible all the time." 

They planned to start by adding Nuu-chah-nulth numbers to Port Alberni's numbered avenues. But when a new street needed a name, they embraced the opportunity. 

'Not just putting a name on a sign'

Port Alberni Mayor Shari Minion says the new street represents a path toward reconciliation for her community. 

"We think the really important piece here," says Minions, "is to embrace Nuu-chah-nulth language and culture. And we think that that is, not just putting a name on a sign, but encouraging people to learn and get comfortable saying it." 

She says there has been some pushback from community members, but nothing like a few years ago when controversy erupted over the city trying to change Neill Street, named for Alan Webster Neill, a local member of Parliament for decades leading up to the Second World War. He was a supporter of residential schools for Indigenous children and the bitter dispute which left the name standing is "night and day" compared to today. 

'As long as people are trying'

The new street name may not roll off the tongue of an English speaker, but Minions and Lauder say it's OK to not get it exactly right and have produced a video designed to help.

 Dawn Foxcroft  the language coordinator at the Tseshaht Language House, says while pronunciation is important, what matters most is having the language out there in the community. 

"Pronunciation will come," she says, "as long as people are trying."

More names to come

Now that the new street has its name, the city will work with Hupačasath and Tseshaht to review and update the list of approved street names that planners keep on hand. They'll add new place names as they see fit, so the next time something needs a name there will be Nuu-chah-nulth options.