Heritage Calgary is thrilled to announce we have submitted our final report and project deliverables for the Naming, Renaming, and Commemoration Project, including the Naming, Renaming, Commemoration, and Removal Handbook.

By way of background, In February 2021, at the request of a City Council member, Heritage Calgary applied to the Council Innovation Fund with a proposal to develop a framework to address naming, renaming, and commemoration in Calgary. The Priorities & Finance Committee approved the proposal on February 16, 2021, and City Council approved it on March 1, 2021.

Our process was thorough and intentional by design. Close to 100 individuals participated in our three-part stakeholder engagement process, which included individual interviews, small group discussions and follow-up interviews, and community and stakeholder engagement on Framework Elements. In addition, we received more than 400 public survey responses – including more than 260 written responses. Of note, more than 80 percent of respondents rated this project as being moderately to very important. Finally, we examined more than 70 published works from the likes of Yale, the City of Toronto, and Ryerson University.

The results were compiled into an Overview and the NRCR Handbook, which will serve as a community resource for NRCR projects. Twelve common principles that NRCR projects encounter and address were identified:

A. Involve the community and people for whom the issue is important. 

B. Understand the historical significance and original intention for the installation or name. 

C. Understand any harm associated with the individual, event, or practice identified.  

D. Engage with original namers or installers, or their community or descendants, when appropriate or possible. 

E. Understand the land on which the statue, memorial, or commemoration is being placed or that the name will relate to. 

F. Think about the physical context of the installation or naming/renaming opportunity. 

G. Identify opportunities for education and awareness (i.e., historical significance, diversity of the community, the impact for equity-seeking communities). 

H. Amplify histories, people, and events that have been traditionally undertold or less known. 

I. Align with the values or principles of the community or organization. 

J. Explore the meaning or significance to the current community. 

K. Consider meaning and significance acquired or lost over time. 

L. Explore if the name or commemoration is honouring the whole person or a single act. 

In addition, eight steps to guide community groups through an NRCR project were identified:

Heritage Calgary has several recommendations to ensure this tool and the spirit of the tool is well represented and engrained in our future policies and ways of communicating and approaching these types of projects. We plan to collaborate with The City of Calgary and other Calgary community organizations to spearhead the adoption and continued resourcing needed to ensure this project continues to receive the support it needs for its continued success.

For more information, please visit https://www.heritagecalgary.ca/naming.