The renaming process began in March of 2023 when the Qik’rtarmiut Alutiit Regional Language Advisory Committee, also known as the Qik committee, sent a letter to the City of Kodiak requesting that Baranof Park have its name changed. Dehrich Chya is the co-chair of the Qik Committee and also the director of language and living culture at the Alutiiq museum.
“Our main goal was to actually just get it changed from Baranof to something else," Chya said.
The park had been named after the first governor of Russian America, Aleksandr Baranov. The committee cited various incidents where Baranof enslaved and exploited Alutiiq people during the 1800s such as using Alutiiq hunters in the 1802 Battle of Sitka. It said the community should not continue memorializing him.
“Baranov’s history is violent and complex and his choices and actions towards Native people are ones we should not continue to memorialize,” the letter said.
Last Thursday on Sept. 25 the Kodiak City Council approved changing the name to the Alutiiq word 'Wamwik' Park. Chya said he’s excited to see the Alutiiq language being used in more public places.
“And I’m really happy to hear of course that they decided to go with Wamwik, which uses our language," he said. "Wamwik literally means a place to play. It comes from the verb Wamluni which means ‘to play’ and then the ending, wik, means a place to do something.”
There was some pushback. Council member Rich Walker was the only council member to vote against changing the park’s name to Wamwik. He said during Thursday’s meeting that he was in favor of a different name that had been discussed last year and the year prior.
“We talked about just sticking with Kodiak Community Park, or Kodiak Athletic Park or whatever," Walker said. "I was more in tuned with doing that instead of, a name of either somebody or something else.”
It’s unclear when the city will put up new Wamwik Park signage around the playground and the recreation center, which contains the community’s indoor ice rink.
The city spent roughly $4 million to renovate and overhaul the park and recreation center, along with updating the playground, which was completed at the end of 2023.
