The following is told from the perspective of the first inhabitants of the Wəlastəkw who lived in the area at least twelve thousand years before the first European settlers came. The French who settled here in the early seventeenth century did not respect the claim of the Wəlastəkokewiyik (Maliseet) to their land when they granted the first seigniories along the river which Samuel de Champlain renamed “rivière Saint-Jean.” In recognition of this crime and the many erasures that ensued, we cede them this textual and memorial space.