After 13 months of fighting, the parents of λugʷaləs K’ala’ask Shaw have received a birth certificate that accurately represents the spelling of his name.
It’s a victory for Crystal Smith and her partner Raymond Shaw, who have been challenging British Columbia’s Vital Statistics Agency to honour the Kwak̓wala characters in their baby son’s name.
According to the provincial Ministry of Health, “going forward, the ability to claim names will be open to all Indigenous peoples” on birth certificates, regardless of age.
Smith says it’s the start of what she hopes will become a wider movement of recognition. B.C. has the highest diversity of Indigenous languages in the country,
