How adding names to archival images has been healing for people of We’koqma’q First Nation

When Bryan (Fish) Googoo saw a photo of himself as a young boy posted on Facebook back in November, he was surprised. He had never seen the black-and-white photo of himself as a five or six-year-old, sitting at a school desk with a pencil in hand. The photo was taken inside the federal Indian day school in We’koqma’q, circa 1969. Googoo, a member of We’koqma’q First Nation in Cape Breton, doesn’t recall the photo being taken, whether his parents were informed, or permission was given for it to be taken.

However, what surprised him even more was that his name wasn’t attached to the photo until recently. The photo, along with thousands of other images of Indigenous people, is part of Project Naming, an initiative by Library and Archives Canada (LAC) that aims to identify Indigenous people in archival images. The project started in 2002 to add names to the photos of First Nation, Inuit, and Métis people that have never been identified, decades after they were taken.

Ellen Bond, the project manager at Project Naming, explained that the initiative is about bringing dignity and honor back to the photos and making them searchable by name forever. It’s a way to right a wrong where only the names of white people in the photos were included, but not the Indigenous people depicted in them.

The photos from the Indian day school in We’koqma’q came from another LAC initiative called We Are Here: Sharing Stories. These photos were originally taken by government employees, photographers, or studios employed by the federal department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development for promotional purposes.

Rosie Sylliboy, who grew up in We’koqma’q and attended the same school in the photos, has been working to identify the people in the images and share their names with the project. She believes that adding names to the photos is a form of healing and a way to connect with the past and honor the memories of those who have passed.

For Sylliboy and Googoo, this project has sparked a desire to see more archival photos from their community and help add more names to make more connections. They both hope to share the photos with elders in the community and keep copies of the photos for all to see, ensuring that the stories and memories of their ancestors are preserved and shared for generations to come.