Meet Mayor Day Star
Iveson, city staffers receive Cree spirit names for reconciliation efforts
Day Star — that’s the Cree spirit name given to Mayor Don Iveson Thursday as part of a ceremony to celebrate a new understanding of Indigenous people at the City of Edmonton.
More than 8,000 City of Edmonton employees have completed an education course on the impacts of Canada’s residential schools, a key recommendation of Canada’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission. To thank the city for that effort, a group of Indigenous employees and the elders council gave Cree spirit names to the mayor, city manager and branch manager of human resources.
Donna Knebush, master of ceremonies for the event, told Iveson that the team attended an Indigenous ceremony on his behalf to ask the elders and ancestors for a name. That’s a traditional way to honour someone among many First Nations people.
“It will be your guide. It will protect you,” Knebush told the mayor in front of a crowd gathered at city hall Thursday.
City manager Linda Cochrane was given the name Grandmother Fox. “You’re like a grandmother who takes care of the den,” said Betty Letendre, who sits on the elders committee.
Support services branch manager Jeff MacPherson was given the name White Raven.
The training helps city employees understand the scope of Canada’s residential school program, which saw 150,000 children taken away from their parents. Thousands died at the schools, and most lost their language and faith.
They also lost connection to their parents, because they stayed out of their home communities for 10 to 12 years, Iveson said, which has intergenerational impacts. The effects of that are visible in Canada today, he said. “This is not an Indigenous issue, this is a Canadian issue.”
Iveson said he believes the training is working because many employees stop him at events or email him to say thank you. Several firefighters, in particular, emailed to apologize and say they would have treated people differently early in their careers if they had understood.
“I said don’t apologize to me. We didn’t know,” he said. “We were all, so many of us, ignorant. Now we have the training, now we know. The opportunity is to make sure that everyone in our organization is able to act with that compassion and understanding.”