ededed
New Member
What a cop out. My community has plenty of elders and we respect them, but that doesn't make them infallible.I think it's important to add to this discussion that the ward names were not arbitrarily chosen by the City. Indigenous leaders reached out with concerns about the previously proposed names, and an all matriarchal panel ended up being chosen to work on picking the names based on place, theme, and the cultures of Edmonton. Each name was chosen for very specific reasons. The names were then gifted to the City in ceremony. The gifting of names in ceremony is an important honor and a core value for much of indigenous culture, to turn our back on that gift would be deeply insulting.
Gifting tradition | Stories | Why Edmonton
Explore how Edmonton embraced Indigenous culture by renaming its 12 municipal wards with traditional names, thanks to the efforts of a dedicated committee of Indigenous women leaders. Learn about the meaningful process behind these names, which honour the rich history and traditions of First...why.edmonton.ca
Personally, I think focusing on ward names was a bit of an odd choice as wards get redrawn periodically and the public tends not to know what ward they live in. But at the same time, if we had done such a process with Highways or communities I'm sure the complaints would be a whole lot louder. It's a bit like the English complaining about Welsh place names in Wales. It's hard for us to pronounce, but the languages predate our existence on this land. The vast majority of place names in Edmonton are in English or other settler languages. Is it the worst thing to make the effort to learn a few names in Indigenous languages?
A bad decision is still a bad decision regardless of how you got there.
