Editor's note: Shene Catholique Valpy is the daughter of NNSL publisher Bruce Valpy.
Shene Catholique ValpySA国际影视传媒檚 battle for her childrenSA国际影视传媒檚 names reflects the basic need to have the world recognize them as they truly are.
Since the birth of her first daughter Sah峋疵準斸境 in 2014, she has been petitioning the territorial government to recognize the traditional spelling of their names on legal documents like their birth certificates and passports.
Sah峋疵準斸境 means, SA国际影视传媒渨hen the sun just peeks throughSA国际影视传媒� in Chipewyan.
However, on her birth certificate, her name is spelled Sahai'a because the GNWT only allows the Roman alphabet to be used on official documents.
Sah峋疵準斸境SA国际影视传媒檚 name contains a glottal stop, which signifies a type of sound used in many spoken languages. Without it, the meaning of her name is lost.
Catholique Valpy lodged her first complaint in 2014 and it has slowly percolated through the machinery of government. Change has come but at a glacial pace.
In a 2015 report, NWT language commissioner Shannon Gullberg sided with Catholique Valpy and said the territorial government was legally bound to provide services in the Indigenous languages of the NWT, of which there are nine, including Chipewyan.
In 2016, Health and Social Services Minister Glen Abernethy promised to introduce legislative changes to the Vital Statistics Act that would allow Indigenous characters to be used on territorial identification documents.
Unfortunately, the governmentSA国际影视传媒檚 lofty gestures have yet to be put into meaningful action.
It is now 2019, Sah峋疵準斸境 is almost five years old, she has a sister named N谩蕯毛l, a brother named Kairo and Catholique Valpy is still fighting.
Nahendeh MLA Shane Thompson recently tabled a letter from Catholique Valpy in the legislative assembly, which asked MLAs to support her campaign.
SA国际影视传媒淢y family, myself, and many others are still waiting on the governmentSA国际影视传媒檚 promise,SA国际影视传媒� she wrote. SA国际影视传媒淎s of now, myself and many others are not able to use the traditional spelling because they say SA国际影视传媒榠t causes too many problems.SA国际影视传媒橲A国际影视传媒�
And indeed, accommodating diversity doesnSA国际影视传媒檛 happen on its own, it means tackling problems.
According to the NWT language commissionerSA国际影视传媒檚 2016-2017 annual report, work still needs to be done on the standardization of Indigenous languages to make sure that written documents are accurate.
Other governments will need to be involved to make sure that people with traditional names can obtain passports and other important documents.
In addition, chances are that people with traditional names will need to explain the significance of the strange looking letters in their official documents to employers, teachers, airlines and foreign governments, but this is the work that must be done if we are to confront our colonial past.
Often the assault against Indigenous identity began with peopleSA国际影视传媒檚 names.
According to a summary report released by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, it was common for residential school officials to give students new European names. At the Aklavik Anglican school, a young Inuit girl named Masak became Alice, at the QuSA国际影视传媒橝ppelle school in Saskatchewan, a boy named Ochankugahe became Daniel.
It is true that Indigenous people are not the only Canadians who have been compelled to change their names.
The throngs of immigrants who were coming to Canada during the late 19th century to escape famine, war and poverty often Anglicized their names to fit into mainstream society.
Even today, choosing an English name when coming to Canada is a common practice among numerous immigrant communities.
But we have to appreciate that the Indigenous experience was unique and different. Theirs was not an immigrant experience but involved a moral injury and that simply wasn't the case for other groups.
The need now is to heal that injury by accommodating Catholique Valpy, and those like her, who wish to be called by their proper names.
