Colonial Despatches

The Chemainus River is located on southeastern Vancouver Island. Its headwaters begin, roughly, north of the Cowichan River; it then travels southeasterly to outflow in the Strait of Georgia, passing through the coastal town of Chemainus. The river, along with the town and district, was named in the 1850s after the Chemainus First Nation.2 Recently, however, the Chemainus have become the Stz'uminus First Nation, to reflect their original Hul'qumi'num language name.2

• 1. Andrew Scott, The Encyclopedia of Raincoast Place Names (Madeira Park, BC: Harbour Publishing, 2009), 117.
• 2. Home, Stz'uminus First Nation.