The University Library has recently purchased a map titled Coming Home Indigenous Place Names in Canada. Located on Archer Library’s main floor by the elevators, the intention of the map is to create respect for Indigenous homelands and sovereignties, and a feeling for and understanding of the place names across Canada, shared by permission of First Nations, Métis, and Inuit communities and people.
The names express territorial rights and describe the shapes, sounds, and stories of sovereign lands as well as mark the locations of the gathering places, the communities, places of danger and beauty, and places where treaties were signed. The names are ancient and recent and they express and assert the Indigenous presence across the Canadian landscape in Indigenous languages. The map does not depict all of the Indigenous place names of Canada, nor are all Indigenous Nations and communities represented.
More information about the map can be found at https://umaine.edu/canam/publications/coming-home-map/