I never realised what a gorgeous word “Ontario” is, until now. The name of the place where I was born is thought to have Indigenous origins, either Ontarí:io, a Huron (Wyandot) word meaning “great lake”, or possibly skanadario, which means “beautiful water” or “sparkling water” in the Iroquoian languages. Ontario has about 250,000 freshwater lakes.
Lake Ontario’s name probably derives from the Iroquois tribe’s beautiful word “Ontarí’io,” meaning “lake of shining waters.” Who could even think of erasing such a magnificent indigenous place name in 2026, and attempt to replace it literally with the name synonymous with European coloniser “Amerigo Vespucci”?
Thanks to Canada Council for the Arts, this summer I had the great pleasure of bringing a crew of three, and my mother across many of those freshwater lakes from Toronto to Cat Lake First Nation via Thunder Bay and Sioux Lookout, to celebrate indigenous culture and identity in a film documentary – more of which anon.
Watch this space!