'There's got to be ways' Indigenous language names can be registered in Manitoba, says SCO grand chief
CBC
A First Nations mother in Manitoba whose daughter's traditional name was changed on the birth certificate supports another couple's call for changes to the province's Vital Statistics Act.
"Our names are really powerful and they're really strong," said Kakeka Thundersky.
"Why can't they just accept how we want to name our babies?"
Thundersky's daughter, Tokala Wači Wiŋ, was born in Winnipeg last year. Her traditional Lakota name translates to "dancing kit fox woman."
Tokala Wači Wiŋ was supposed to be written together as a first name. Instead, Manitoba's Vital Statistics Branch made Tokala the first name, turned Wači Wiŋ into two middle names, and didn't include the accents.
Earlier this week, a First Nations couple said they ran into issues with Vital Statistics after naming their baby Atetsenhtsén:we, which translates to "forever healing medicine" in Kanien'kéha, the Mohawk language.
The parents said nurses alerted them that the colon symbol and accented "e" may not be accepted on their birth registration. According to Manitoba's Vital Statistics Act, when registering a child's birth, "the given name and the surname must consist only of the letters 'a' to 'z' and accents from the English or French languages, but may include hyphens and apostrophes."
Thundersky said Indigenous parents shouldn't have to go through Vital Statistics with individual inquiries.
"That's asking for a lot of unnecessary labour on the part of parents," said Thundersky.
"We always have to settle; we always have to be like, 'Oh, that's good enough.' But it's not what we intended so that's really frustrating."
In 1998, Diane Redsky contacted Vital Statistics prior to the birth of her son Binesi Ma'iingan, whose first name translates to Thunderbird in Anishinaabemowin and whose last name means Wolf, and is the name of his clan.
She said at the time there were two barriers that she was aware of to registering his name, one being that babies had to be named before leaving the hospital, and the second being that the child had to have one or both of the parents' last names.
She said she sent a letter to the Consumer Affairs Minister and was told the legislation could easily be changed.
"The legislation was changed just in time for my son to be the first child in Manitoba to be named traditionally by the elders, and his surname is his clan," said Redsky.
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