A small secondary school that opened this year in Langford’s Eagle Ridge Community Centre for students who participate in high-performance athletics and art programs has been gifted a SEN膯O纽EN name by a local First Nation.
Now called Eagle Ridge Secondary School, the school will be known as QELE峁圫EN Á, LE峁� Secondary School (pronounced K-wuh-Lun-Sun, Eh Lun) after consultations with five local first nations.
The nations determined that as the closest nation to the school, the Sc’ianew Nation would gift the school its new name.
QELE峁圫EN Á, LE峁� roughly translates as Eagle House in SEN膯O纽EN.
The Sooke School Board unanimously agreed to adopt the new name for the flexible secondary school, which opened in January.
About 84 students, mostly athletes from the Pacific Coast Hockey Academy, attend the school, which is run out of four classrooms inside the community centre.
In recent years, a number of new school in the Sooke School District have been given Indigenous names, including PEXSISEN Elementary School, whose name means “the opening of hands” in the Songhees language, Centre Mountain Lellum Middle School, with “Lellum” meaning “house and the idea of community, where we raise our children,” and S膯I群NEW瘫 S峁瓻冉I峁复E冉, which means “salmon children” in SEN膯O纽EN.
Board chair Amanda Dowhy said the board is committed to honouring Indigenous peoples and increasing a sense of belonging in their schools.
“By accepting a gifted Indigenous name for the school, we have an opportunity to contribute to the preservation, revitalization and the strengthening of local history, language and culture,” she said in a statement.
About 10 per cent of the district’s more than 12,000 students are Indigenous, Métis and Inuit. The three predominant First Nations are T’Sou-ke, Pacheedaht and Sc’ianew, while some district schools are on the traditional territory of the Esquimalt and Songhees Nations.
