Edmonton has revised its electoral boundaries, and at the same time, renamed all the wards with Indigenous names selected by the Committee of Indigenous Matriarchs.
My new ward is #5, named O-day'min, meaning strawberry or heart berry.
The city's page about the new wards includes explanations of the new names, pronunciation guides, and information about how the name was chosen for that ward.
If you live in Edmonton, check out your new ward using the links at the bottom of this post.
How did this come about?
How does something like this happen? In this case, it was a matter of two people writing a letter suggesting that the new wards be given Indigenous names:
In early June 2020, when Terri Suntjens and Dr. Kristopher Wells heard that city councillors were considering geographically representative names as part of proposed changes to Edmonton’s 12 municipal voting districts, they wrote a letter that inspired an entirely different approach.
(Source)
Lesson to be learned: Be bold in what you ask for. If Terri and Kris had not written, we would have missed this great opportunity to work together for reconciliation.
Read more:
City of Edmonton webpage about the naming committee with descriptions of the new names for all wards.
PDF map of Edmonton showing new wards:
https://www.edmonton.ca/city_government/documents/CitywideWardMap.pdf
APTN Twitter Feed with all Ward images (including those used above):
https://twitter.com/APTNNews/status/1310325402183831552
Full MacEwan article: How an open letter led to Indigenous names for Edmonton’s new municipal wards
https://www.macewan.ca/wcm/MacEwanNews/NEWS_INDIGENOUS_WARD_NAMES_20
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