Songhees Nation of the lək̓ʷəŋən (pronounced le-KWUNG-en) people is located beside Esquimalt and View Royal on Vancouver Island, five kilometres from Victoria. Songhees Nation’s peoples are the descendants of the lək̓ʷəŋən people, the original inhabitants of the Greater Victoria region, who have hunted, fished and gathered here for thousands of years. This area, with its temperate climate, natural harbours and rich resources, was a trading centre for a diversity of First Peoples; when Captain James Douglas anchored off Clover Point in 1842, he saw the result of careful lək̓ʷəŋən land management, such as controlled burning and food cultivation, practices woven inseparably into lək̓ʷəŋən culture and the land itself.
Songhees is a Coast Salish Nation whose historic language, lək̓ʷəŋiʔnəŋ, the community is actively reawakening through its Language Revitalization Program. Before contact, lək̓ʷəŋən families lived seasonally in cedar plank houses, moving between village sites across a traditional territory that reached over the southern tip of Vancouver Island, including present-day Victoria and Langford, and out across the Gulf Islands and the San Juan Islands. Songhees Nation, to this day, remains one of the two lək̓ʷəŋən-speaking governments and its reserve lands extend beyond its home on Esquimalt Harbour to Halkett Island, the Chatham Islands and Discovery Island. Within Victoria itself, seven bronze markers, the Signs of lək̓ʷəŋən, cast from cedar carvings by master carver Butch Dick and his son Clarence Dick Jr., mark culturally significant sites including Songhees Point, Beacon Hill, and the grounds of Fort Victoria, itself built by lək̓ʷəŋən men and women.
Rooted in thousands of years of history, the lək̓ʷəŋən homeland remains a place of cultural strength and resilience. Each September, Songhees Nation welcomes visitors to the annual South Island Powwow, held in honour of the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation.
714 (as of June 2026)