Indigenous people in the NWT who use traditional names are cautiously hailing a new government policy on naming as a step in the right direction.
On June 14, the federal government announced that traditional names can now be printed on official identification documents, such as passports, citizenship certificates and residency cards.
READ MORE: Indigenous peoples can now reclaim their traditional names on immigration identity documents
The change is in line with one of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s calls to action, urging governments to allow residential school survivors and their families to reclaim names changed during colonialism and revise identity documents accordingly.
READ MORE: Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada: Calls to Action
Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) extended the policy beyond residential school survivors to include all Indigenous peoples and made the service free for five years.
IRCC’s printing system follows International Civil Aviation Organization guidelines for names and can only print in the Roman alphabet, with some French characters, said IRCC spokesperson Sonia Lesage.
As a result, not all of the spellings and symbols used for some Indigenous names, such as the diacritics in many Dene words can be printed.
“If an Indigenous name contains characters that are not recognized by the issuance system, we may need to make minor modifications, with the applicant’s consent,” Lesage said.
Stacey Sundberg supports the policy change on names, calling it a good start.
She plans to use her two-year-old son’s Tlicho-Wiliideh name Konaitlii on official documents.
“In English it means ‘spark of lightning.’ When Indigenous people lived on the land, we named our kids after the environment we were in,” said Sundberg, a member of the Yellowknives Dene First Nation.
On Aug. 9, 2018, when she began to go into labour, there were heavy thunder and lightning storms in the Yellowknife region that lasted all night. Konaitlii was born the next day.
“A sacred tree was blown down by the wind near the Yellowknife River. The Elders said it’s spiritually significant that a baby is born on the same day a sacred tree is blown down in a storm,” she said. “I felt really inspired by my great-grandfather, whose name was Itoa. He was born in the barrenlands in the eastern Sahtu region, beside a little tree. His parents decided to name him Itoa which means ‘tree or plant.’”
But while Sundberg supports the policy change, she thinks it should go further to include the diacritics and fonts used in Dene words that express sounds like glottal stops and tones.
“Those need to be included as well. They can’t just give us half of it. Without the diacritics and the schwas, it’s not complete. We need to work with them more and work with more language specialists. I think if they made a program for that it would be a good way of doing reconciliation,” Sundberg said.
For Shene Catholique-Valpy, the June 14 announcement marks a new development in an ongoing battle.
The Yellowknife resident and member of the Lutsel K’e Dene First Nation has been working for several years to ensure traditional names can be printed in official documents.
Like Sundberg, she gives partial support to the federal government’s move.
“I am happy to see this announcement but I am still cautious because they are still not allowing all Indigenous people to use their real names with proper spelling,” said Catholique-Valpy.
As far back as 2014, she has been calling for changes to allow traditional names on birth certificates.
RELATED REPORTING: Fight for traditional names on birth certificate enters fifth year
Some success was achieved in 2018, when the GNWT waived fees for some name changes so residential school survivors could reclaim names and correct errors on NWT birth certificates, as CBC reported.
RELATED REPORTING: N.W.T. sees 29 name changes after waiving fees to reclaim Indigenous names
But Catholique-Valpy thinks there is still a ways to go.
The names of her daughters Náʔël and Sahᾴí̜ʔᾳ can’t yet be changed to include the proper Chipewyan diacritics, she said.
“My daughters still will not be able to use the spelling of their names, which excludes them. As for myself, I am able to utilize this policy because (I can) reclaim my full name with proper spelling only because it is recognized in the French language. I am thankful for the change but it is not enough for me to stop my fight. They have skipped an important step and that’s to honour all Indigenous names.”
When her four-year-old daughter Náʔël sees her name on government documents she gets confused by the spelling.
“I need to explain to my daughter that the way it’s written is her government name. It’s a hard conversation to have. It shouldn’t be like that,” she said.
Catholique-Valpy’s next step is to try to speak with the new commissioner of Indigenous languages, Ronald E. Ignace, on naming policies. Ignace was appointed to the new commission on June 14.
And on June 21, National Indigenous Peoples Day, she will speak virtually with a panel of government and civil society groups for an event to be held at the Canadian Embassy in Washington, D.C.
“I’m going to be speaking about traditional names – how they link to culture and identity. I just want to keep the conversation going.”