Photo: Emily Kewageshig wearing the shirt she designed for Orange Shirt Day © Courtesy of Giant Tiger Stores Limited
Anishinaabe artist and visual storyteller Emily Kewageshig uses art to explore relationships between people, the natural world, and the teachings that connect them. This September, she’s putting it on a t-shirt—not just any t-shirt, of course, but a new orange shirt created in recognition of the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation.
Kewageshig, from Saugeen First Nation No. 29, is the artist behind this year’s orange shirt from Giant Tiger and Indspire, part of a five-year partnership supporting Indigenous education. With her vivid colours and bold graphic lines, Kewageshig draws upon Anishinaabe teachings to create works centred on interconnectedness, balance, renewal and the cycles of life.
Those themes are reflected in her new design, which explores the connections shared by all living beings, a particularly meaningful message for a day dedicated to remembrance, reflection and reconciliation.
“I’ve been highlighting Truth and Reconciliation Day and Orange Shirt Day for a long time, personally through social media and through my art,” Kewageshig said. “It’s really special to now be able to share that message on a bigger stage, with two organizations that are helping amplify it and doing everything they can to contribute to the cause.”
Each year on September 30, the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation honours the children who never returned home from residential schools, including the survivors, their families, and their communities. It recognizes the dark history of the residential school system and its lasting effects. The federal statutory holiday coincides with Orange Shirt Day, a grassroots movement inspired by the experience of residential school Survivor Phyllis Webstad.
When she was six years old, attending St. Joseph Mission Residential School in British Columbia, Webstad had the new orange shirt her grandmother had bought her taken away upon arrival. Her story eventually inspired Orange Shirt Day and its message that “Every Child Matters,” with orange shirts becoming a symbol of remembrance and awareness across the country.
For Kewageshig, this year’s shirt also connects that reflection on the past with investment in the future. One hundred per cent of profits from its sale are being donated to Indspire’s new Giant Tiger Learning from the Past Bursary, supporting First Nations, Inuit and Métis post-secondary students pursuing studies in Indigenous Studies and Languages.
The initiative builds on five years of collaboration between Giant Tiger and Indspire, a national Indigenous charity focused on education. Since the orange shirt campaign began, it has raised more than $1.8 million for Indspire’s Learning from the Past Fund, which provides bursaries to Indigenous students studying Indigenous languages and cultures.
It’s a natural connection to Kewageshig’s work, which is rooted in the teachings passed down through Indigenous cultures. Through images of interconnectedness, renewal and balance, Kewageshig uses visual storytelling to express the relationships between people, culture and the living world, and to bring an Indigenous artistic perspective into a conversation taking place across the country.
As Canadians mark National Day for Truth and Reconciliation this September 30th, her orange shirt design is a wearable form of reflection, understanding that remembering the past and shaping the future are deeply intertwined.
Source: Giant Tiger Stores Limited
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