Kwigw8mna Room Names

Created with the collaboration of the Kchi al8msakw Project

Kwigw8mna

Kwigw8mna was named by Chief Rick O’Bomsawin of Odanak First Nation.

The Abenaki word wigw8m means “house” or “dwelling.” To say “my house” the suffix n– is added, making nwigw8m. However, there are two ways to say “our house” in Abenaki. The first “nwigw8mna” is exclusive, which means that is does not include the person being spoken to (i.e., “our house but not yours”). The second, used as the name of this building, is inclusive. Kwigw8mna means “our and everyone’s house.”

Tolba al8msakw

Tolba al8msakw means the turtle room. This gathering space is for all Indigenous Nations to come together. The turtle often represents the foundation of Turtle Island (a name referencing what is now known as North America). It is also a symbol of the centre of creation in several Indigenous creation stories.

Tolba is the generic name for the turtle in the Abenaki language. Other turtle species have their own specific names:

Aligdaït (the one that jumps), snapping turtle (chelydra serpentina)

Sobagwitolba, sea turtle

Mikinakw, tortoise, Northern Map Turtle (graptemys geographica)

Wid8baa al8msakw

Wid8baa al8msakw means the friends’ room. Different Nations will come to discuss and learn around the table. This principle of inclusivity is embodied in the word wid8baa, which can be variously  translated as “their friend or friends”, as well as “someone’s friend or friends”.

In the Abenaki language, there are two grammatical genders (animate and inanimate) and three types of nouns (independent, dependent, and participles). The word “friend” is a dependent animate noun: animate because it refers to a living being; dependent because this word must include a suffix describing whose friend is being referred to. For example:

nid8ba = my friend

kid8ba = your friend

wid8baa = their (singular) friend (as well as his or her friend)

It can also mean “their (singular) friends” and “their (plural) friend or friends,” as well as “someone’s friend or friends” due to a feature of the Algonquian language family called the obviative. This applies to the third person of animate nouns and is a relationship between the principal (or proximate) third person (in this case w–), who is brought to the foreground, and the secondary (that is obviative) third person (in this case –id8ba), who is pushed into the background. In Abenaki the obviative is formed by adding the suffix –a to the noun that plays a secondary role in the clause.

Mikoskhigan al8msakw

Mikoskhigan al8msakw means the research room. The word mikoskhigan means “research” or “investigation” and is a noun. From the same root comes the verb mikoskhiga which means “to find something new”, “to do research”, or “to investigate.” This is an animate intransative verb. This means that (1) the subject of the verb (the researcher) must be of the animate grammatical gender (i.e., something or someone alive); and (2) that what is being research is not specified. The word for a researcher is mikoskhigat, a type of animate noun called a participle as it comes from the verb.

Koa al8msakw

Koa al8msakw means the white pine tree room. Tall white pines (pinus stobus) surround Kwigw8mna and the Bishop’s University campus and are a prominent species in this area.

The word for white pine also became synonymous with the word for “log” in the 19th century because this species was heavily logged by the forestry industry in this period.

Interestingly, the Massawippi River, which flows into the Saint-François just beside Bishop’s University, once bore another name for part of its length.  Historically the name of the last section of the river was the Coaticook. Henry-Lorne Masta, an Abenaki from Odanak, explained the origin of this toponym as being “the river of the pine tree.”

Kpiwi al8msakw

kpiwi (in the woods) or kpiwi al8msakw (in the woods-room)

Kpiwi is an adverb of location that denotes being in the woods next to a river. This has particular significance for the Kwigw8mna location in its proximity to the Alsig8ntegw (Saint-Francois River) and Massawippi River. Connected to this word is another adverb, kpiwsi, meaning “in the little woods”, which can refer to a stand of young trees, as well as a grove (such as the one behind Kwigw8mna). The word for a tree in Abenaki is abazi (and abaziak for trees).

Sibo al8msakw

Sibo al8msakw, meaning the river room, is so named due to its view in the direction of the Saint-Francois River and its proximity to the Massiwippi river. 

Sibo means river in the Abenaki language. However, in the composition of a word, the suffix –tegw is used instead. For example, the name of the Saint-Francois River is Alsig8ntegw, which could be translated as ‘empty cabin river’ (Day, 1995, p.379).

Both Sherbrooke and Lennoville have place names referring to rivers in the Abenaki language:

Kchi Nikitawtegwak is the name that the Abenaki or W8banakiak in the Abenaki language used to refer to Sherbrooke. The place name is pronounced tsé-né-qué-tao-tèg-ou-ak and means the large forks at the confluence of the Alsig8ntegw and the Magog River. 

Nikitawtegwasis, the place name referring to the location of Lennoxville, and more specifically where Kwigw8mna is situated, means the small forks where the Alsig8ntegw and the Massiwipi River meet. The place name is pronounced né-qué-tao-tèg-ou-a-sis.