VANCOUVER — The University of Victoria has announced the latest winners of the ɬíɬəl ʔa kʷs ƛ̓kʷəxnəq Skʷukʷəlstəŋəƛ̓ | SIÁMĆEȽ awards.The university has said that “ɬíɬəl ʔa kʷs ƛ̓kʷəxnəq Skʷukʷəlstəŋəƛ̓” is translated as 'Gift for the successful student, alum’ from the Lekwungen language, whereas “SIÁMĆEȽ” means 'highly respected alum and continuing to do respected work’ in the Saanich language.According to multiple sources, there are fewer than six living people who speak the Saanich language.The last fluent native speaker of Lekwungen, Dr. Elmer George, who named one of the awards himself, died last spring.In practice, this means the full award name is effectively unpronounceable by most if not all Canadians, including most UVic alumni, faculty, and attendees at the March 26, 2026 celebration event held at the Victoria Conference Centre.Even university communications frequently pair the Indigenous names with the much simpler “Distinguished Alumni Awards” for clarity..UVic frames the naming as an act of “reconciliation and cultural recognition” on the traditional territories of the Lək̓ʷəŋən-speaking peoples.Critics, however, have pointed out the irony of bestowing honours with names that are functionally inaccessible to the very communities being celebrated.Columnist and reporter at the National Post Tristin Hopper noted the irony, for example, when he said on X: “Cree or Inuktitut on signs makes sense, because it's usually done in areas where literacy of the language is equal or greater than English. But in this case, UVic is using a script understood almost exclusively by linguists.”.“The number of indigenous people who can read it is close to the single digits,” Hopper continued.Former BC public servant Nick Osmond-Jones called the award names “stupid” in his own X post..“No one can read this, and you know no one can read this. And everyone knows that you know no one can read this.”
