Inuvik’s mayor says the town plans to rename some streets that have names connected to its residential schools.
A public hearing on May 14 will examine the renaming of Ruyant Crescent. This week, the town announced a naming committee had chosen a replacement name of Jak Zheii Place for the street.
In Gwich’in, jak zheii means blueberry.
The committee selected that name “to honour the Town of Inuvik’s commitment to Truth and Reconciliation, while also acknowledging a cherished location for berry picking among locals and Elders in years past,” the town wrote.
According to Mayor Clarence Wood, it took a while for the town to find volunteers to be part of the committee.
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“We finally got a number of residents to take part,” he said. “It’s been a process that has taken almost a year.”
He said the committee existed in part “to get rid of some of these street names that are closely associated with residential schools, and Ruyant is the first one.”
The town’s website provides a complete list of street names along with their origin.
That list asserts that Ruyant Crescent was named after a Roman Catholic priest who operated the Grollier Hall student residence for 25 years. Grollier Hall opened in 1959 as a residence run by the Roman Catholic Church, then was taken over by the NWT government in the 1970s, remaining in operation until the late 1990s.
Ruyant Crescent isn’t the only street that’s appeared as a candidate for renaming. In 2021, a petition was started to rename Adam Road, which was also named after a priest.
Wood anticipates at least three more streets will be renamed in the near future.
