Power of Names

Bishop Grandin ... the man behind the street

Winnipeg is a city that likes to use place names to honour people. Our city’s history is reflected in its names. Because of this we revise street names as our view of history changes. Other cities, like say Edmonton, use numbers. Personally, I like to rely on visual aspects of a place. The road along the river becomes River Road, the street with the big elms becomes Elm Street, etc.  Renaming streets creates confusion … but it does give us a glimpse at how dynamic our history is. 

Bishop Grandin Boulevard, a major Winnipeg roadway, was recently renamed Abinojii Mikanah meaning Children’s Road in Ojibway and Cree. This is meant to reflect the lurid history of Residential Schools.  It also reflects Canada's growth as it recognizes colonialism for what it was ... an invasion. 

Bishop Grandin, the man who designed residential Schools, has been disgraced. Rather than honouring  the man who was one of the masterminds behind their creation we want to remember the victims.  But we shouldn't forget this man. We should look at the banality and humanity of evil and realize that it looks very ordinary ... that you can't judge actions by faces.

History in names: former Frauenburg in Poland
Name change reflecting Hitler's defeat

The right to naming is the gift of power. Exploring my mother’s history was made more difficult because of the name changes of her childhood villages. Federofka became Kaliniwka, Kreuzburg became Slavskoye, Königsberg became Kaliningrad. Maybe we could try hyphenated names? But that might only add to the confusion. 

In my new novel, Waltraut walks with her mother down Churchill Drive. Churchill’s name adorns streets, towns, ports, schools. What’s in a name? A lot of meaning … a lot of history and a lot of politics. There are no Hitler Drives … anywhere in the world.