STAHN: Just stop with this effort to recognize First Nations culture
It’s no secret that First Nations bands around the province are struggling to preserve their culture and language. In an effort to recognize our Secwépemc community, Kamloops city council members agreed to have staff look into the possibility of adding the traditional language of our local First Nations to our stop signs.
But when staff came back with a legal opinion that adding a second language to stop signs would not meet the requirements set out in the Motor Vehicle Act, city council still spent 20 minutes debating the merit of adding ‘estil,’ the Secwépemc word for stop, to city stop signs.
Instead of focusing on what else could be done to incorporate more of the local First Nations culture into our city fabric, much of the discussion centred around whether people would know to stop if a second language was featured on the signs.
Time was spent discussing whether people would still recognize the red octagonal sign as meaning stop, why reserves and Quebec can have a different language on their signs and even whether local First Nations should be recognized.
There was overwhelming support for finding additional ways to recognize this traditional culture. My question to Coun. Donovan Cavers, the council member who spearheaded the stop sign movement and kept the conversation geared towards the red signs on Tuesday, is: What about stop signs signifies Secwépemc culture to you? Why the need to focus on such a small piece of real estate that doesn’t even showcase the culture?
We do feature Aboriginal art in the city and most special events begin with an acknowledgement that we are on the traditional territory of the Secwépemc people, yet the idea of finding another way to honour the Secwépemc culture and even to help them preserve their dying language is still definitely worth pursuing. But we can find a better way than a stop sign. We would be better off to showcase the culture through the arts or stories the First Nations people are really known for.
We already have something here a lot of other cities don’t have. For the most part we have a respectful relationship between Kamloops and Tk’emlúps te Secwépemc residents and integrated, welcoming communities. Now we just need to figure out how to keep that going in a way that works for both communities, and is allowed by provincial law.
To contact a reporter, email Jennifer Stahn at jstahn@infonews.ca or call 250-819-3723. To contact an editor, email mjones@infonews.ca or call 250-718-2724.
5 responses
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Hi Jen,Just wanting to respond to a couple of points in your column. There are a few reasons I thought the two language signs were a good idea:1- To me it seemed to be a very simple, straight-forward and tried/tested way to incorporate, as Caroline Dick has pointed out, First Nations language into the “every day” rather than the current tradition of only recognizing FN during special events or at locations that are more of a gallery type setting.2- The initiative, unlike many others that have been suggested as better options (most of which I do also support), would cost next to nothing as the city is already manufacturing stop signs in house at the city’s own sign shop. My proposal was to have the signs phased in as old or damaged signs came up for routine replacement so there would be virtually no additional cost.3- Despite what many believe, adding ‘estil’ is not necessarily illegal which contradicts the interpretations of the city’s transportation department. The link below includes comments made by Minister of Transportation, Todd Stone, yesterday: http://cfjctv.com/story.php?id=22558 . Apparently, according to CFJCTV’s Gareth Maddock Jones, 36hours after originally being questioned T. Ministry staff still could not answer definitively whether the signs would or would not contravene the motor vehicle act.At the City Council meeting on Tuesday, the report from staff focused specifically on stop signs, hence the focus of the discussion on signs. To me this does not preclude future conversations on other initiatives. I explained to any reporter who spoke to me after the meeting how the cost would be virtually nothing, for the reasons stated above, but unfortunately it did not make it into the story which created a tremendously negative online response. As a result I believe this positive initiative has little chance of ever becoming a reality.Donovan Cavers
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Hi Jen,Just wanting to respond to a couple of points in your column. There are a few reasons I thought the two language signs were a good idea:1- To me it seemed to be a very simple, straight-forward and tried/tested way to incorporate, as Caroline Dick has pointed out, First Nations language into the “every day” rather than the current tradition of only recognizing FN during special events or at locations that are more of a gallery type setting.2- The initiative, unlike many others that have been suggested as better options (most of which I do also support), would cost next to nothing as the city is already manufacturing stop signs in house at the city’s own sign shop. My proposal was to have the signs phased in as old or damaged signs came up for routine replacement so there would be virtually no additional cost.3- Despite what many believe, adding ‘estil’ is not necessarily illegal which contradicts the interpretations of the city’s transportation department. The link below includes comments made by Minister of Transportation, Todd Stone, yesterday: http://cfjctv.com/story.php?id=22558 . Apparently, according to CFJCTV’s Gareth Maddock Jones, 36hours after originally being questioned T. Ministry staff still could not answer definitively whether the signs would or would not contravene the motor vehicle act.At the City Council meeting on Tuesday, the report from staff focused specifically on stop signs, hence the focus of the discussion on signs. To me this does not preclude future conversations on other initiatives. I explained to any reporter who spoke to me after the meeting how the cost would be virtually nothing, for the reasons stated above, but unfortunately it did not make it into the story which created a tremendously negative online response. As a result I believe this positive initiative has little chance of ever becoming a reality.Donovan Cavers
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I kind of turned a blind eye with cavers last election because he was young & green.However this time around he,s had some seasoning.He had better start putting a lot more thought into his suggestions,to gain popularity.
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Ms. Dick: Nothing is perfect and can always be improved. But that is not what I took from this story. What I believe the reported was talking about is the extra time that council took on a moot subject.As she says, there other good ways of showing our respect for the culture that would be better than then putting a word on something that is really not part of their culture.
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I get a lot of what is being said in this article, but the headline is prejudiced to the extreme.Also, it shows ignorance to assume that all aboriginal culture is the same,and the fact that “we do feature aboriginal art” is good enough.I’m not sure where this “integrated, welcoming communities” comes from.On paper that’s certainly true.And the efforts of the City and TIB are laudable, but it’s a process and it’s certainly not good enough.It’s not a completed project.There is anger and prejudice on both sides.It’s common.It happens all the time.Pretending that it doesn’t exist and that everything is perfectly fine is the strategy of a severely dysfunctional family.This attitude that Aboriginal culture has to be some huge event or ceremony rather than a part of every day life, is part of what is perpetuating the schism between FN people and the rest of our province.I’m not saying that putting the Secwepemctsin word on stop signs should or should not happen.I’m just saying, maybe you should step down from your place of privilege before you spout your “But we all love those Natives SO MUCH” opinion piece.This “get over it” attitude while pretending to be accepting of FN peoples isn’t very clever or subtle.It’s just another kind of racism.
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