WIIKWMKOONG—The Wiikwemkoong Warriors athletic teams will be sporting a new logo in the coming years as Wiikwemkoong High School retired its former teams logo following a request by former education director Mick Staruck to make the change out of respect “and to be culturally sensitive to our neighbouring nations here on Turtle Island.”
A release emailed on Friday, February 17 announced that, “Effective today, we are formally retiring the logo with the chief’s head/headdress on it that is not representative of our people here in Wiikwemkoong of the Three Fires Confederacy.”
“This decision was not made lightly,” noted the release. “We are at a point in time where we must understand the need to remove peoples of any background from the branding of athletic sports teams. In an effort to show our mnaadendemowin (respect) for our neighboring nations, Dwayne Animikwan (Wiikwemkoong Board of Education communications director) has revised our previous logo to reflect a modern approach to continuing with the WHS Warrior legacy.”
In a missive to Wiikwemkoong educational and sports communities, the request was made to, “Please make the necessary changes to social media platforms, email signatures, or any other digital branding you utilize to continue with the new logo as of today. Any new spirit-wear orders will also reflect this change.”
