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Traditional name important gift in Indigenous cultures

Winnipeg Free Press columnist Niigaan Sinclair
“In Indigenous cultures, a traditional name is one of the most important gifts in a young person’s life,” writes columnist Niigaan Sinclair.

Last month, the Southern Chiefs’ Organization called on the Manitoba government to amend the Vital Statistics Act to allow Indigenous parents to use traditional names when naming their children.

For decades, Indigenous parents have been told by bureaucrats that certain name spellings, accents, and length would not be approved for use on legal documents.

For Indigenous names like mine, this is a complicated but handleable issue.

To read more of this column first reported by the Winnipeg Free Press, click here.

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