Haida Gwaii community moves to restore Indigenous name
A Haida Gwaii group is one step nearer to restoring its conventional Indigenous title.
The Village of Queen Charlotte, situated on the southern finish of Graham Island within the archipelago off B.C.’s North Coast, was on condition that title in 1908 by white settlers.
However on Monday, council members voted unanimously to revive the ancestral Haida title, Daajing Giids, pronounced “daw-jean geeds.”
“I am very proud,” mentioned Kris Olsen, mayor of the group that lies in the normal territory of the Haida Nation.
“I can’t describe actually the expertise I am going by proper now as a result of it is … respect. It is shifting ahead in a approach that is respectful for the air, the land and the ocean, and the those that stay right here on Haida Gwaii.”
Olsen mentioned the brand new title means widespread hat, or dancing hat.
Through the assembly, Coun. Ayla Pearson mentioned the title Queen Charlotte has at all times made her really feel uncomfortable.
“After I hear my friends and mentors discuss what the title Queen Charlotte means to them, it does not sit proper to me to have our group referred to as this any extra. We have to acknowledge this request,” she mentioned.
“Tonight that’s altering. However what hasn’t modified is my love and admiration of this group.”
Haida Gwaii itself was referred to as the Queen Charlotte Islands till it was renamed in 2009.
Council can’t change the village’s title by itself; the province has to log out first. Olsen mentioned council will work on a letter to the Ministry of Municipal Affairs on the subsequent assembly on June 6 and can ship it to the province shortly after.
Olsen could not discuss whole prices to the group and province, however mentioned he expects them to stay low. As residents renew driver’s licences and different identification in coming years, their deal with will change to Daajing Giids, he mentioned, so there shall be no extra prices there.
Conversations since 2019
The change has been within the works since April 2019, when elders and employees with the Skidegate Haida Immersion Program submitted a formal request to council.
“We consider all Haida ancestral place names needs to be restored to our land and our seas,” the letter mentioned.
“We consider that our treasured Haida language will proceed to flourish when the restoration and reclamation [of] our Haida language place names is gently and respectfully given again.”
The dialog was placed on maintain for all of 2020 on account of the COVID-19 pandemic, however was picked up once more in late 2021 when a group engagement session was held to speak about why the title may or ought to change and reply questions from residents about what it meant for them.
A survey despatched to residents earlier this 12 months confirmed the vast majority of residents are supportive of the change; about 60 per cent voted in favour.
“We took this gradual as a result of we wished to do it proper,” Olsen mentioned.
“We’re shifting ahead in a approach that is uniting, it is wholesome, it is therapeutic.”
Olsen mentioned there was no steerage for his group when it comes to restoring the normal title, and hopes that the work they’ve achieved will provide a framework for others trying to do the identical.
“We stay in an enormous nation,” he mentioned throughout Monday’s assembly. “Possibly this can begin spreading east so extra communities will have a look at doing what we’re doing.”
