FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Algonquin Nation Secretariat Launches New Website.
The Land That Talks: A multimedia tour of Algonquin place names.
Timiskaming First Nation, QC, March __, 2012.- The Algonquin Nation Secretariat has launched a website dedicated to rediscover Algonquin place names that have disappeared from maps that are in the English and French languages.
Algonquin place names tell stories. These stories connect the Algonquin people to the land and to the cultural identity of where we live. Place names, or toponymy is an important building block of Aboriginal story telling, where cultural traditions are passed between one generation and the next. Between 1910 and the 1930’s, Algonquin place names disappeared from maps for many different reasons. Some were replaced simply because they were to hard to pronounce in the Algonquin language. The goal of the project is to bring these stories back, to map Algonquin toponyms before they are lost forever.
The Algonquin Nation research teams from Timiskaming and Wolf Lake First Nation with financial contribution from the Ministère de la Culture, des Communications et de la Condition Féminine du Québec have completed working on a web based project to compile and showcase Algonquin place names to maps. It is with great pleasure to introduce this web based project to experience a look at First Nations story telling of land use and occupancy. The site includes recorded interviews and pictures. The interviews about place names were conducted for the Timiskaming and Wolf Lake First Nations traditional territories. This is a living website and map and not all Algonquin place names are represented here. The extent of the map does not suggest the limits of Algonquin Rights and Interests.
To visit the site go to www.algonquinnation.ca/toponym
Contact : Lindsay McLaren Polson – Timiskaming First Nation
Brenda St-Denis – Wolf Lake First Nation
Tel.: 819-723-2019 ext.: 227
e-mail us at : ahip@algonquinnation.ca