The Council of Canadians Fredericton chapter supports the call for the Saint John River to have its original name restored.
The NB Media Coop reports, “The Wolastoq Grand Council is supporting their youth’s proposal to change the name of the Saint John River back to its original and proper name, the Wolastoq [which] means ‘beautiful and bountiful river’ in the Wolastoq (Maliseet) language.”
That article adds, “The call for individuals and groups to support the name change issued by the Wolastoq Grand Council states that, ‘Wolastoq is our identity’, and argues that, ‘scientific studies have now confirmed what our people have always known: water has memory. Once we address the river as ‘Wolastoq,’ this river will remember its original name.'”
The Council of Canadians agrees that the renaming of Wolastoqewiyik lands and waters is part of the colonial theft of those lands and the ongoing dispossession and displacement of the Wolastoqewiyik (Maliseet People).
Other groups that have endorsed the restoring of the original name of the river include the Peace and Friendship Alliance and No One Is Illegal Fredericton.
