In the days and weeks since the discovery of unmarked graves containing the remains of 215 Indigenous children in Kamloops, B.C., municipalities all over the country have faced floods of requests to rethink the title of every school, street, building, and structure that bears the name or likeness of those who created, funded, and supported Canada's residential schools.
Some communities were swift to blot out the offenders from local landmarks. In less than two weeks, Edmonton had renamed a downtown LRT station and covered a contentious mural depicting a nun carrying an Indigenous child toward a residential school as Bishop Grandin, a fervent supporter of Canada's residential school system, looked on.
The city painted over the scene in bright orange – a colour which has come to signify support for the movement to honour reconciliation for Indigenous peoples.
Many supported the move; many others saw it as a hasty response to an issue that demands more meaningful, inclusive consultation.
The problem with rushing decisions is that, while hoping to solve one problem, it's quite possible to create another.
Listening is really what needs to happen now, with action from understanding as the long-term goal.
Morinville's "nothing about us without us" approach is to bring Alexander First Nation members toward council and spend time in discussion with the Indigenous people in the area before jumping to make changes.
Coun. Natalie Joly, at St. Albert city council on Monday, put forward a motion to bring a business case to the 2022 budget to re-examine the current names in our community, and draft a new process for naming future city infrastructure, such as neighbourhoods, recreation centres, and streets.
Gathering feedback is one of the first steps in the process. Hopefully that feedback will involve many conversations with Indigenous peoples.
Those who are directly affected by time spent in residential schools, or its trickle effects on multiple generations of Indigenous families, are the loudest voices we need to hear.
It's also time to wipe our own lens clean.
It's clear many Canadians had little to no knowledge of the atrocities committed at residential schools. Judging by the collective aftershock in the wake of the Kamloops discovery, it appears the whitewashing of Canada's history also needs a good, hard look.
The facts are important. But so is the process.
Our role as allies right now is to ask, to listen, and to really hear. And to educate ourselves, so the decision-making in every municipality reflects diversity and respect for the land we share, and all cultures within our communities.
Most interestingly, Mayor Cathy Heron commented Monday that perhaps the entire process of naming things after people is what is flawed.
Perhaps.
Naming buildings, streets, and schools after people will potentially always carry an element of risk.
No matter how much digging through a person's past we do now, time has a way of unearthing ugly truths – including those the history of each era has conveniently rewritten.
Editorials are the consensus view of the St. Albert Gazette's editorial board.
