Lethbridge Correctional Centre gifted a Blackfoot name

The Lethbridge Correctional Centre was gifted with an honourary Blackfoot name Thursday

The Lethbridge Correctional Centre now has a Blackfoot name.

The name Two Paths Lodge has been gifted to the centre.

The official name is not changing. Instead, the honourary Blackfoot name will be used alongside the English name during ceremonial and cultural settings.

The name was gifted by Elder One Gun and reflects the centre’s commitment to rehabilitating inmates through culturally grounded approaches that help them take responsibility and build healthier lives.

“Once we’ve come into this system to work with it, we have to choose which way we’re going to decide (how) we’re going to treat human life,” said Blackfoot Elder Warren Drunkenchief. “It’s very particular for a Blackfoot to go along these and be able to utilize them because they come out as dreams and visions.”

Heidi Heavyshield, the Indigenous programs coordinator at the correctional centre, said the name would create community within the institution.

“It doesn’t take over from our name Lethbridge Correctional Centre,” Heavyshield said. “We all work really closely in relationship and partnership with our staff within the centre and in community with all of our agencies and partnerships and stakeholders to support our clients in here for safer communities, for healing and recovery so all of those pieces are really important.

“If anything, it just strengthens those relationships.”

Along with the name, the centre already has established practices inside its therapeutic living units, where Blackfoot names are given to foster kinships, responsibility and belonging.