The Centre Wellington Minor Lacrosse Association (CWMLA) has begun the process of changing their team name and logo. The Mohawks name was selected by a player vote back in 2010 when the Fergus and Elora minor lacrosse associations merged.
Nathan Joyes, CWMLA president, said talks began back in November 2019 about changing the team name and logo.
“Under the realization that people are going to constantly be asking us, outside of the lacrosse community, to change the name without understanding the roots and the ties between lacrosse and the Native American community,” Joyes said.
According to World Lacrosse, the sport was started by the Native American Indians and was originally known as "stickball."
Joyes said the Mohawks name and logo was always intended to honour the Indigenous people who invented the game of lacrosse.
“We have people that don’t know the history, and they keep poking in and so, their poking in and they’re not listening, the next person will come in and they haven’t heard the story about the ties to the community that we’ve had,” Joyes expressed. “And so, we’ve gone down for a number of years down the education route to try to bring people into the loop, and understand the history of the sport.”
He said that it’s gotten to the point where the association is spending too much time trying to educate people, and it’s taking away from the management of the minor sports organization.
Though the Mohawk team name and logo won’t change until spring 2021, Joyes said that as long as he’s president of the CWMLA, he will continue to educate people on the history of the sport, and the ties it has to Indigenous communities.
“There’s some really, really strong ties to it in comparison to other sports such as, football or baseball, where they’ve just kind of picked up the name and they were using it as marketing, and claiming a tribute towards the Native [American] community,” Joyes said.
The CWMLA are asking for public input on their new name and logo change starting in early February through the association’s website and their social media channels.
Joyes said although public input hasn’t started yet, there is already strong public opinion about what the name should be.
“Some people want to keep the Mohawks as the name, some people want to call ourselves the hawks, and the thistles has come up a few times as well,” Joyes said.
He added that the CWMLA is looking at government funding and other alternatives to offset the costs for the complete rebranding of the team.
Nathan Joyes, CWMLA president: