The idea of possibly renaming a Regina street that has been seen as harmful to Indigenous peoples came out of a recent executive council meeting.
Dewdney Avenue was named after a man who was the Commissioner of Indian Affairs who created policies for Indian residential schools.
On Wednesday evening, Regina city councillor Andrew Stevens served notice for the next council meeting on discussions of renaming Dewdney Avenue, which he said has been a topic for quite some time.
“I think before the 2020 election, there was a pretty substantial number of residents who were mobilizing to change the name of … Dewdney Avenue. They had collected, I think about 2,900 signatures asking for a renaming,” said Andrews.
“I think this deserves a bit of closure … I think it’s a really sincere and meaningful commitment to reconciliation and to revisit whether or not Dewdney himself should have an entitlement to one of the most important roadways in the city.”
City councillor of Ward 6, Dan LeBlanc, said naming a street after someone is a way of honouring that person and as a way to uphold members of the community but has a different view with Dewdney.
“Edgar Dewdney does not deserve that honor. He was a very bad person with a horrific legacy in Saskatchewan and in Regina, so he was deeply involved in orchestrating residential schools,” said LeBlanc.
“He was involved in using starvation as a tactic in negotiation of treaties. It’s wholly inappropriate for the City of Regina … to continue having a major street named after that individual.”
Joely BigEagle-Kequahtooway is a local co-founder artist with the Buffalo People Arts Institute in Regina. She was one of the people who pushed to have Dewdney Avenue renamed.
“One of the calls to action is to identify places of significance and to recognize the importance contribution of Indigenous peoples,” said BigEagle-Kequahtooway. “We wanted to change the name of Dewdney Avenue to Tatanka Avenue to recognize the important history of what happened to the buffalo or the Tatanka on this land.”
Tatanka means buffalo in the Siouan language, and it is how BigEagle-Kequahtooway came up with the idea after Regina was originally known as Pile of Bones.
“Part of our nonprofit organization the Buffalo People Arts Institute is to bring back the buffalo mentally, physically, spiritually and emotionally,” she said. “This is an educational opportunity … why would we honour (Dewdney) with his name on one of the main arterial roads in Regina.”
The motion is set to be discussed on June 12 at Regina city council.
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