Iroquois Ridge High School will be keeping its name after a school board report found that there are differing perspectives on whether the word “Iroquois” is offensive, reports Vancouver Sun. The school board’s staff consulted with families within the school board, Indigenous scholars and elders, members of Six Nations of the Grand River and members of Mississaugas of the Credit First Nation, and advisors from the Ministry of Education. “Some individuals recommend that the term ‘Iroquois’ remain, as it aligns with their individual identity, while others view the term as outdated and pejorative, and suggest that it would be beneficial to replace it. Still others expressed that while they understand the term as pejorative they do not take offence and posited that removing the name amounts to erasure,” read the report. The board opted not to go forward with the renaming process and not to provide a commemorative plaque with information on the name, as the debate had been “divisive.”
