The official banner for Wîhkwêntôwin- ᐄᐧᐦᑫᐧᐣᑑᐃᐧᐣ. Photo by Ryan Hunt.
During a city council meeting on Feb. 21st, the name change for Edmonton’s biggest neighborhood was approved. The community of ‘Oliver’ will now be known as ‘Wîhkwêntôwin ᐄᐧᐦᑫᐧᐣᑑᐃᐧᐣ’ (we-kwen-to-win).
Translating to ‘a circle of friends’ from Cree, Wîhkwêntôwin ᐄᐧᐦᑫᐧᐣᑑᐃᐧᐣ is the first neighborhood renaming of its kind in Edmonton. It involved input from the Oliver Community League (OCL), community residents, elementary students at Oliver School, and Indigenous Elders who call the land home.
The OCL Board of Directors started the motion of changing the name in 2020, as the community was named after Frank Oliver in the 1930’s. Oliver was the Minister of the Interior and later the superintendent general of Indian affairs at the federal level. He helped enact policies that targeted Indigenous land rights and restricted immigration for minority groups.
The name will be put onto city owned buildings, schools, a future LRT station, and more, effective on Jan. 1st, 2025.
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