Group wants Bedford Road Collegiate Redmen to change name
Saskatoon School Board trustee Kathleen Brannen agrees name should change
A group wants a Saskatoon high school's sports team to change its name.
A Facebook group is asking for public support to change the name and image of the Bedford Road Collegiate Redmen.
The group says the name and the Redmen logo is not a positive representation of an Indigenous person. They plan to make their proposal to change the name tonight, in front of 10 Saskatoon Public Schools trustees, who will ultimately make the decision.
"It's the logo that is mostly the issue," Brannen said. "I just think it is a world where we probably shouldn't be using mascots that have those sorts of associations."
The Redmen logo depicts an Aboriginal man wearing four feathers. It was redesigned in May of 2013.
Alex Wilson, academic director of Aboriginal Education Research Centre at the University of Saskatchewan, will be at the school board meeting tonight. Wilson said changing the Redmen name is in the best interest of the school's students.
"Over the decades, there has been plenty of research done that has shown stereotypical images, or caricatures, contribute to the continual subjugation of indigenous people," Wilson said. "Students internalize that message and it impacts their learning [and] their way of being in the world and how they connect to one another.
The group's proposal will be heard tonight at 7p.m. at a Saskatoon Public School Board meeting.
Replay the Saskatoon Morning live chat looking at whether Bedford Road's nickname should be changed or kept.