SIPP Public Policy Papers 13

Abstract

Canada is, in historical terms, a fairly recent political manifestation. The name, so myth tells us, is drawn from some Aboriginal language, though opinion differs on which one, or what the literal translation was. Nor does that precision matter. It is the history of the name itself that is significant, a mutated fragment of a language of an indigenous nation, which pre-existed but leaves its mark on the colonial state. Turtle Island is a name, or approximation of a name, used by several Aboriginal nations to refer to this continent. It is also a mythic reference, drawn from the cosmology of some indigenous cultures, in the way that “the Dominion” reference to Canada is derived from the biblical myth of Genesis. Historically a geographical rather than political designation, Turtle Island is now a political invocation. There were and are politics, of course, between the many nations resident on Turtle Island, including the sequence of colonial populations that eventually formulated Project Canada. Turtle Island, and other original names, exist as a palimpsest for the myth and reality of contemporary Canada, whose name comes from Turtle Island folk who are themselves contemporary residents (if not all unequivocally citizens) of Canada. Palimpsest can be written or experienced, but all layers of palimpsest define its totality.