Brampton school to get Indigenous name, replaces first Canadian Prime Minister

Sir John A. Macdonald Public School in Brampton is getting a new Indigenous name.

At tonight’s meeting of the Peel District School Board, a report will recommend the name be changed to Nibi Emosaawdang Public School. The renaming is expected to be approved.

The removal of the name of Canada’s first Prime Minister from the school follows increasing pressure on the board to eliminate connections to the country’s colonial past including residential schools where Indigenous children were indoctrinated with European and Christian values.

The new name comes after consultations with Indigenous communities and parents and students currently associated with the school, according to the report.

The name “Nibi Emosaawdang” which when translated into English means “Water Walker”, was chosen, according to the report, to honour Josephine Mandamin an Anishinaabe First Nations grandmother, elder and founding member of the water protectors who walked about 25,000 miles around the shorelines of all the Great Lakes, and other waterways of North America, carrying a bucket of water, to bring awareness to the need to protect the waters from pollution. Mandamin, who died in 2019, was a residential school survivor. The name is meant to represent all Water Walkers.

Located at 250 Centre St. N. in Brampton, the new name is expected to be in place officially by the start of the next school year.