As the school year comes to a close, John Howitt Elementary unveiled its new logo, with a design created by a local Nuu-chah-nulth artist.
The logo was presented at the Port Alberni school on June 27, a brightly coloured design appearing as a mural before students and staff. The logo was created by Geena Haiyupis, who formerly worked as a Nuu-chah-nulth education worker at the school.
During the unveiling Principal Steve Brown explained that it was in early 2022 that the school decided a new design was needed.
“We wanted our logo to better reflect our Indigenous students and the Indigenous communities that we live, learn and play on,” he said.
Hundreds of ideas were gathered from students and staff, leading Haiyupis to list them in a computer spreadsheet to determine the most common themes. These were sent to the principal, with a raven and eagle as popular concepts.
“He said that those would be the most identifiable for territory, because they get a lot of ravens and eagles up there,” said Haiyupis in reference to the school’s surroundings.
She then made three designs, which went to John Howitt’s faculty.
“There was positive feedback for all of her designs, but one stood out, and it was the one that provided the most positive feedback from our staff,” explained Brown.
The end product presents an eagle, a raven, two welcome figures and trees over a creek. This illustrates the environment around the school, said Brown.
“On a lucky day in the fall you can see salmon returning up the creek,” he said.
Within the design also lies John Howitt’s shield, which is already included in the uniforms of the school’s sports teams. The logo also bears the rainbow colours of a pride flag in reference to the school’s aspiration to foster acceptance among its students and surrounding community.
Haiyupis hopes that in the future the logo will encourage those at the school “to bring in more inclusivity, to make space for everybody.” This is particularly relevant for Aboriginal youngsters, said Haiyupis, who brought forward students T.J. and Pedro Hernandez to recognize them for their role in painting the mural, an activity that took place every Thursday over several weeks at the school’s gym.
“The more we hold up our Indigenous youth, the stronger they will be,” said Haiyupis. “This is the way we beat the streets, by giving them their culture, their language, their traditions, their songs and dances.”
The artist reflected on how the school environment has changed over her life.
“We fought really hard for our culture and our traditions, everything that we have here today,” she said. “When I was a kid it wasn’t okay for us to be singing and dancing and learning language in school. It was really shunned. I actually pretended to be Spanish because I was so embarrassed to be First Nations.”
