Updated act allows for traditional names
Northern News Services
Monday, August 14, 2017
SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
Recent changes to the Vital Statistics Act will allow individuals to register a single name on their birth documents, as long as the name is based in their traditional culture.
Deneze Nakehk'o said the change is a long time coming.
"Indigenous people have had their own ways of naming people for thousands and thousands of years," he said.
"It was probably in the last 50 years names were assigned to Dene people and Inuit people were not even assigned names, they were assigned numbers."
Languages commissioner Shannon Gullberg said allowing a single name is a positive step, yet work remains to put in place technology for Indigenous fonts.
The health department stated work is ongoing to allow for Indigenous fonts on identification documents.
This is something Shene Catholique-Valpy, who is still waiting to have the Chipewyan spelling of her daughter's name on her birth certificate, has long called for.
