From Catholique to Gahdële: Reclaiming Dene name a long journey for N.W.T. man
CBC
J.C. Catholique says his current name is meaningless.
The Łutsel K'e, N.W.T., resident is in the process of reclaiming his traditional name: Gahdële.
"Catholique, you know, has no reference to being Dene or Dënësųłinë́ person," he said. "But when you say Gahdële, yeah, that means 'rabbit blood' … That's a Dënësųłinë́ name."
Gahdële says the Catholique name came when missionaries were registering community members.
"To them, [Gahdële] sounds like Catholique, so that's where we ended up with our name like that."
Earlier this year, the N.W.T. permanently waived the name-change fee for Indigenous residents. It first decided to do so in 2018 for five years.
"In the past, individuals who helped new parents complete birth registrations in the N.W.T. may have been unfamiliar with Indigenous names so they were spelled incorrectly. Because children had to be registered with the same name as their parents, this spelling mistake may have continued for generations," explained the territorial government.
The decision came as a direct result of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission's Call to Action 17.
"Making this process permanent respects the intergenerational impacts of residential schools by allowing Indigenous people to reclaim their names at any point in their lives, and also protecting that ability for future generations," reads a June news release from the N.W.T. government, about the decision.
This isn't Gahdële's first name change.
His birth name is John Morris Catholique, but he became known as Gabriel Paul Catholique while in residential school in Fort Resolution, N.W.T.
"We were doing a roll call and this name came up … Nobody said anything 'til one of the older guys from Łutsel K'e said, 'That's you.'"
He says his grandmother later told him that wasn't his name.
He obtained his baptism papers and saw John Morris Catholique; he also learned his birthday was June 14, not 15, as he had been celebrating for years.
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