The Discovery Trail

Bonavista is a town of about 3,000 people that’s located at the very eastern tip of the Bonavista Peninsula, facing the North Atlantic. It’s considered to be the site of John Cabot’s 1497 “discovery” of North America. But the truth is, we don’t know for sure where Cabot landed – could have been Bonavista, but also could have been St. John’s or Cape Breton Island. Nevertheless, Bonavista was chosen as the site for the 500-year-anniversary celebrations of Cabot’s landing, giving it a definite edge in the competition to claim Cabot’s achievement as its own.

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I live on one of a network of roads that comprises The Discovery Trail, leading to Bonavista. Any time I drive home from the Trans Canada Highway along Route 233, I pass this sign.

I understand that the use of the term “discovery” is compelling from a tourism marketing standpoint. But its use perpetuates the false narrative that there was nothing here when Cabot arrived. Landing in Bonavista may have been a discovery for him, but for the then-inhabitants of this land, it was a disaster. Known as the Beothuk, these Indigenous people are considered to have become extinct by the mid 19th century, although there is some debate about this. I think it’s safe to say that Beothuk society ceased to exist at that time, even if a few individuals were still alive.

There is some recognition here in Newfoundland of the problematic nature of the term “discovery”. For example, in 2020, the provincial government decided that the June 24 statutory holiday would no longer be called “Discovery Day”. But overall, it seems to me that the discourse here about colonialism and its impact on indigenous peoples is fairly limited. This is why the new UNESCO GeoPark on the Bonavista Peninsula is called Discovery. And the new organization that promotes hiking on the peninsula is called Hike Discovery. I have heard people claim that the term “discovery” can mean a range of things, and shouldn’t be linked solely to Cabot’s arrival, but that seems disingenuous to me. I live on The Discovery Trail, but that term doesn’t refer to the myriad of things I discover daily about my new home. It’s a celebration of the arrival and lasting settlement of Europeans in North America – a celebration that is insufficiently universal to warrant its continued use.