Seven Oaks rejects Indigenous name for new school

Several groups have expressed their disappointment in the rejection of an Indigenous name for a new school in the Seven Oaks School Division in Winnipeg. A delegation of educators, parents, and students presented ideas to name the school in honour of Indigenous culture, but the school division’s superintendent said it will use the name Templeton School, after its location on Templeton Avenue. Seven Oaks Elder-in-Residence Mary Courchene said that she met the board’s decision "with a little disappointment” and cited the importance of reflecting the division's community in its school signs. “I’m 100 per cent positive that there will be another time and that we will be able to do it,” said Courchene. “After all, we’re in that era of education where our voices are now being heard.” The superintendent indicated that SOSD will be keeping with a longstanding practice of naming schools after their geographic locations, although Ry Moran of the University of Manitoba’s National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation noted that “we have to remember that our history as it’s currently presented is very recent and not fully reflective of the history that exists on this land.”  (MB) Winnipeg Free Press  | Nation Talk