Letter: Renaming Chippewa, thoughts from a NNDSB taxpayer and Chippewa Alumni

To the editor:

At the Dec. 13/22 NNDSB meeting, a report called ‘Chippewa Renaming and Rebranding – After the Consolidation’ was presented. 

The report states that the original direction about school renaming was to rename and rebrand both Chippewa and West Ferris Secondary Schools. (ref. ARC Recommendation 17-09-12).

Understood so far; consolidation = renaming/rebranding of all remaining schools. I don’t necessarily agree, but that’s just me.

But then, the report makes an uncited statement: “*While both school sites; Chippewa and West Ferris were originally named in the motion, the focus of this report is the name change and rebranding of Chippewa. The name “West Ferris” is currently not an equity issue. West Ferris students have remained the “Trojans” while Chippewa students are just that, Chippewa students without an identify [sic].”

Wait. The word “Chippewa” is an ‘equity issue’?

That’s a totally different situation. An ‘equity issue’ doesn’t necessarily get solved by changing a name and/or brand. There is a whole education component that needs to be part of the process. 'Renaming' is for sure a legitimate part of truth and reconciliation, but don’t the names being ousted belong to people who perpetrated injustice, not names relating to proud Indigenous culture?

But I digress…

The minutes also state that a Naming/Rebranding Committee will be established to lead the renaming initiative, which indeed happened during the NNDSB Committee of the Whole on Jan. 10/23. The “Chippewa Renaming Committee” was established with Superintendent Smylie as the chair, along with two trustees. 

“…Superintendent Smylie noted the Naming Committee will engage in a thorough process informed by deep consultation in alignment with the board’s administrative guidelines and ministry regulations regarding facility names in order to present a final recommendation to the Board of Trustees for approval.”

(I am interested to know about the board’s guidelines and ministry regulations.)

I feel like this is an unprecedented opportunity for the NNDSB to demonstrate respect and a real desire for reconciliation, by turning to the Indigenous community to lead how to proceed.

Do the Indigenous people want to change the name? Maybe yes, maybe not. What name would they like? What new mascot would they like? What process would they like to follow for implementing something new?

In my humble opinion, settlers don’t have the right to make these decisions. Only the Indigenous community can say what harm has been done to them because of the existence of Chippewa Secondary School, and only the Indigenous community can say how to make things right going forward.

I urge the Committee to focus its efforts on building a process to respectfully request that our local Indigenous communities lead the way on this topic.

Thank you for your time and consideration.
Kelly Liesmer

North Bay

See related: Keep the Chippewa school name says one Indigenous local leader