Many syntax and permissions errors on postgres sql dump import - postgresql

Question

I am trying to import a .sql database dump into my postgres 9.6.1. I've tried in command line as well as the Postico GUI but get a ton of errors (like thousands of lines of errors) on import.
The SQL dump is from a coworker running postgres 9.4.5 and the SQL looks valid.
My Postgres Version:
PostgreSQL 9.6.1 on x86_64-apple-darwin, compiled by
i686-apple-darwin11-llvm-gcc-4.2 (GCC) 4.2.1 (Based on Apple Inc.
build 5658) (LLVM build 2336.11.00), 64-bit
I've tried the following imports:
psql -U postgres dbname < ~/Desktop/dbname_local_db_20161122.sql
Then logging in and trying it:
psql -U postgres dbname
dbname=# \i ~/Desktop/dbname_local_db_20161122.sql
Errors: (there are way more than this)
Password for user postgres:
SET
SET
SET
SET
SET
SET
CREATE EXTENSION
COMMENT
ERROR: schema "public" does not exist
ERROR: extension "citext" does not exist
ERROR: schema "public" does not exist
ERROR: extension "pg_trgm" does not exist
SET
ERROR: function "add_session_metric" already exists with same argument types
ERROR: role "myrole" does not exist
ERROR: function "session_metrics_partition_creation" already exists with same argument types
ERROR: role "myrole" does not exist
ERROR: function "session_metrics_partition_function" already exists with same argument types
ERROR: role "myrole" does not exist
SET
SET
ERROR: permission denied to create "pg_catalog.messages"
DETAIL: System catalog modifications are currently disallowed.
ERROR: relation "messages" does not exist
ERROR: permission denied to create "pg_catalog.Message_id_seq"
DETAIL: System catalog modifications are currently disallowed.
ERROR: relation "Message_id_seq" does not exist
ERROR: relation "Message_id_seq" does not exist
ERROR: permission denied to create "pg_catalog.sessions_users"
invalid command \N
invalid command \N
invalid command \N
invalid command \N
invalid command \N
invalid command \.
ERROR: syntax error at or near "2"
LINE 1: 2 hello 3 1 2015-11-12 09:25:14.646-07 2015-11-12 09:25:14.64...
ERROR: syntax error at or near "1"
LINE 1: 1
^
ERROR: relation "external_session_info_sessions" does not exist
invalid command \.
ERROR: syntax error at or near "2528"
LINE 1: 2528 1
^
invalid command \.
ERROR: relation "feedback_id_seq" does not exist
LINE 1: SELECT pg_catalog.setval('feedback_id_seq', 1, false);
Like I said, the SQL file looks valid. I've checked for compatibility issues from 9.4.5 to 9.6.1 but don't see any.
I do see PERMISSION DENIED but I am running the command as user postgres which has super user permissions:

Answer 1

First, the recommended way is to use pg_dump from the higher (target) database version to create the dump, because that version of pg_dump knows about incompatible changes that happened since and can create a dump that will restore correctly.
Some of the errors are normal if you restore a dump into a database that already has objects with the same names in it; often that is a sign that the dump should actually have been created with pg_dump -C to include a CREATE DATABASE statement.
However, your SQL script seems seriously messed up, and I doubt that it is an unmodified dump of a 9.4.5 database.
pg_dump will never dump any objects in pg_catalog. This schema can only contain system objects which are not included in a dump (they are created by CREATE DATABASE), and as you have seen, not even a superuser may create an object in that schema (unless allow_system_table_mods is on, which it really shouldn't be).