Iroquois Ridge High School to keep its name after ‘divisive’ debate over whether it’s derogatory

An Ontario school board has decided against renaming Oakville’s Iroquois Ridge High School. After months of consultations, it concluded that, while there are “divergent perspectives” on whether Iroquois is an offensive term, to continue the process would do more harm than good.

“There has been ongoing dialogue from many voices on the request to rename the school, and some of this dialogue has become harmful and divisive for Indigenous community members,” says an email from Claire Proteau, the Halton District School Board’s superintendent of education, sent to parents of students in the Oakville, Ont., high school.

Back in March, the school board received a request from an unnamed community member, which said Iroquois is a “colonial settler term for the Haudenosaunee and is seen as a derogatory term and is not respectful of Indigenous peoples,” according to the school board’s summary of the complaint.

The Haudenosaunee, who live in central Canada and the eastern United States, were originally comprised of five Indigenous groups — Mohawks, Oneidas, Onondagas, Cayugas and Senecas — sometime between the 14th and 17th century. After 1722, the Tuscarora joined the confederacy.

After the request for renaming was received, the board passed a motion that initiated the renaming process. At the time, Heather Francey, the Halton District School Board’s manager of communications and engagement, said the role of trustees was not to debate whether or not Iroquois was offensive, in order “to avoid perpetuating further harm.”

“It has already been confirmed to be inappropriate,” said Francey.

It turned out not to be so clear-cut. In April, the board rescinded the motion that had begun the renaming process, and instead directed staff to consult with the Indigenous community “to determine whether or not to initiate the renaming process.”

That report was submitted to the board last Tuesday. While it contained no specific recommendation about whether the school should be renamed, Curtis Ennis, the director of education at the Halton District School Board, told trustees that he did not believe that route was best.

“In order to necessitate healing, bringing people together, not causing further harm, it would be my recommendation, support, for leaving things as they are at this time,” said Ennis.

The board’s staff consulted with “self-identified Indigenous families within the HDSB, Indigenous scholars, Indigenous elders, members of Six Nations of the Grand River, members of Mississaugas of the Credit First Nation, as well as advisors from the Ministry of Education, on the rationale for renaming Iroquois Ridge High School.”

“Some individuals recommend that the term ‘Iroquois’ remain, as it aligns with their individual identity, while others view the term as outdated and pejorative, and suggest that it would be beneficial to replace it. Still others expressed that while they understand the term as pejorative they do not take offence and posited that removing the name amounts to erasure,” the staff report says.

Some say that Iroquois is a name the French used and it translates to “snakes.” But back in March, Grandmother Renee Thomas-Hill, a Haudenosaunee elder, said that she was told it has a different meaning, that it referred to young men running through a forest bringing a message, “like a bird would bring a message.”

“But other people have given it a derogatory meaning,” she said.

Others have argued that it’s a phonetic translation of an ancient word referring to “America.”

Regardless, at a board meeting last Wednesday, the board opted to not go ahead with the renaming process.

There was some debate, however, about whether or not a commemorative plaque should be put up at the school “to provide historical context and information about the origin and significance of the school’s name,” said Tanya Rocha, who moved the motion.

Robbie Brydon, another trustee, said: “I am not certain that elevating with a commemorative plaque when part of our community says ‘ooh that name stings,’ is the right thing to do.”

In the end, the board voted and it was a tie, defeating the motion.

“I think that this process has really taught us that we can’t solely rely on the word of one group when it comes to matters that are Indigenous,” Rocha said at the meeting. “We as trustees should not be making decisions about Indigenous terms without speaking to the appropriate Indigenous people.”

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