'Many of the streets are named after explorers to honour white explorers, and it provoked absolutely no discussion.'
When builders created Halifax’s distinctive Hydrostone neighbourhood more than a century ago, they chose to honour celebrated explorers. There are streets named after William Grant Stairs, Christopher Columbus, John Cabot and Henry Morton Stanley, among others.
Early lives on Stairs Place in the Hydrostone, named after the Halifax-born explorer who was instrumental in some of the most violent expeditions across Africa. A few blocks over is Columbus Place, which is just down from Cabot Place. Jonathan Roberts, a history professor at Mount Saint Vincent University in Halifax, said in a recent interview that Stairs was a leading figure in several trips to attempt to “pacify” parts of Africa. Stairs’ journals outline the strategy he adopted on his travels, which included ambushing villages and killing thieves who stole from his encampment.
Roberts and Early’s efforts reflect a growing conversation around names and the place they have in society, said Lauren Beck, a professor of Hispanic studies at Mount Allison University in New Brunswick. She said the “moral anxiety” around names has shifted over time with our values. “Many of the names on our maps, when they do celebrate people, many of those people are wealthier people, or they’re politicians who have a very specific role in our society,” Beck said. “What would we call our places if we were given the opportunity to make them welcoming and inclusive, reflective of the population, rather than just one demographic?”