Yellowknife’s post office receives a new name and new look

Yellowknifers may have recently noticed new artwork being installed on the exterior of the Canada Post building on Franklin Avenue.

The work, by Tłı̨chǫ artist James Wedzin, includes a life-size depiction of Yellowknives Dene member Michel Paper, who delivered mail for Canada Post by dog sled, alongside a band of traditional Dene flowers in beadwork, moosehide tufting and a Delta braid.

The new look is part of efforts to modernize the historical building by making it more accessible and more energy and cost-efficient.

The building will also get a new name, Akaitcho Post – after the Akaitcho First Nations – at a ceremony that has tentatively been scheduled for September 17.

Darrell Beaulieu is the president of Denendeh Investments, which is owned by all the NWT Dene First Nations. Denendeh Investment is one of two partners that own the post office building in downtown Yellowknife, alongside JV Developments.

Beaulieu told Cabin Radio a year ago, when work on the building began, that the name Akaitcho Post had been recommended during a workshop with Yellowknives Dene First Nation Elders. (He couldn’t be reached this week before publication of this article.)

In a press release on Wednesday this week, the partnership between the two companies – known as 6133 NWT Ltd – added that its shareholders wanted to “amplify the Indigenous presence in the revitalization of the downtown core and provide a canvas that reflects the area’s Indigenous culture and history, specifically the Yellowknives Dene First Nation.”

In the past, some changes made by the owners haven’t been universally welcomed.

The removal of raised planters in front of the post office last year reminded some residents of the removal of benches in the same location a decade earlier. Both acts took away seating that had been used by some of the city’s vulnerable population.

Last September, then-health minister Julie Green said the removal of the raised planters – and the corresponding public seating they offered – was “truly appalling.”

At the time, Sandra McDaniel – vice-president of JV Developments – told Cabin Radio the planters were being removed and would not be replaced as it was “felt that not having people just sort-of hanging around there might be better.”

Denendeh Investments has previously defended changes like the removal of benches by pointing to complaints that had been received about people drinking, harassing others, and using the property as a washroom.