Place name with Indigenous slur near Iqaluit needs to be replaced, women's advocacy group says

Warning: This article discusses an offensive slur. The CBC has chosen to only use it once for context and censor it in later references.

A Nunavut women's advocacy group says the name of a group of islands containing an Indigenous slur relatively close to Iqaluit needs to be replaced.

Old Squaw Islands, the official name recognized by the Nunavut government, are located approximately 40 kilometres southeast of the city.

The S-word is considered a derogatory word for an Indigenous woman.

"It's shocking to me. It's shocking that in 2022, we have a place so close to the capital of Nunavut with such an offensive name," said Madeleine d'Argencourt, executive director of Qulliit Nunavut Status of Women Council.

"Anything that's derogatory that is an official marker in this territory should be addressed."

The place name dates back to at least 1961, according to a federal government website containing the uncensored version of the name.

The CBC has been asking for an interview with someone from Nunavut's Department of Culture and Heritage about the name for more than two months but it did not make anyone available.

In an email, a spokesperson said the department contacted the Government of the Northwest Territories, and the Geographic Names Board of Canada (GNBC) but was not able to get information about the origins of the name.

A spokesperson for Inuit Heritage Trust said there's no known Inuktut name for the islands.

It's possible the name stems from the duck previously known as oldsq--w (Clangula hyemalis). According to the American Ornithological Society, that name was changed a couple of decades ago to Long-tailed Duck.

In an email, a spokesperson for Environment and Climate Change Canada said the department follows the society's book on bird names, and the bird "is a circumpolar species that breeds across most of Nunavut."

Sileema Angoyuak, president of Qulliit, said even if the place name was based on the bird's name, it should be replaced. 

"It should be changed to something more meaningful," said Angoyuak, who has camped and travelled by boat in the area of the islands.

The current place name "should be questioned by us Inuit in Nunavut."

A spokesperson for Natural Resources Canada, the organization that coordinates the GNBC, said in an email that a name change would be the responsibility of the Nunavut government.

"We are aware that the current name is derogatory and are working with members of the Geographical Names Board of Canada to develop an approach for derogatory names," read the statement.

Several jurisdictions in North America have or are in the process of replacing place names that contain that word.

Yukon to remove S-word from place names

Last year, Yukon's territorial government party leaders said the word should be removed from four place names in that territory.

"Discussions are currently underway between the [Yukon Geographical Place Names Board] and First Nations with regards to renaming these features," Clare Daitch, a spokesperson for Yukon's Department of Tourism and Culture, said in a Jan. 4 email.

The U.S. federal government is in the process of replacing the names of more than 660 geographical locations across the country that contain the word.

"For Inuit, our place names are incredibly important in understanding where we are in the world and what we value in our society," Natan Obed, president of Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami, said in a phone interview.

He noted there is a long history in North America of place names based on derogatory words or misinterpretations of Indigenous names.

"It's important that we push back against that, and to push back against the colonial legacy of naming, and to do all that we can to eliminate place names that are derogatory in nature to Indigenous peoples no matter where we come across them," Obed said.

"I know it might not seem like an incredibly important thing, and I think it's partly because we're just so used to them, but if you get to the heart of it, it is the way in which people come to understand Indigenous peoples. It's the way in which, in many cases, they imagine Indigenous peoples.

"And for non-Indigenous Canadians or Americans to be still using these place names as if there is absolutely no meaning to them, shows just how far we need to go in reconciliation."

D'Argencourt, who is Inuk, said she has been called the S-word before.

"When I was called it when I was younger, I knew it was an offensive term, I didn't know why. [When I got] older and understood the history behind that term, I was offended," she said.

The islands' name should revert back to the traditional place name if there is one, she added.

According to the federal government's list of place names, the S-word is in 20 currently official place names in Canada.