CFL teams across the country will honour residential school survivors, their families and communities this weekend in conjunction with the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation. The tributes to the children who never made it home — and those who live with the scars —  will look different across the nation.

But the meaning behind them is the same.

“This is a time for them to be acknowledged and also bringing in people from all over the North who have never experienced a professional football game,” Manitoba Keewatinowi Okimakanak Grand Chief Garrison Settee said earlier this week at a press conference in Winnipeg. “It’s a healing process that’s happening while we’re in the midst of a very important game.”

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The BC Lions and Winnipeg Blue Bombers led the way five years ago by hosting the first CFL Orange Shirt games.

“We do our training camp in Kamloops,” said Jamie Taras, the Lions’ director of community relations. “So the whole thing started when we got the news of the unmarked graves at Tk’emlúps te Secwe?pemc, which is the First Nations group out of Kamloops. So that’s kind of our second home

“With our colour being orange and orange shirt day, we thought it was a natural fit.”

The Lions work alongside the Indigenous community each year to change up the look and feel of the event.

“This year, our theme is from surviving to thriving,” Taras said. “The elders and the knowledge keepers of the indigenous community don’t want to just be known as survivors. They also want to be recognized for the wonderful things that they have contributed to the community.”

A sampling of those wonderful things — created through resiliency —is on display starting Friday night in Montreal and Vancouver and culminating Saturday in Winnipeg and Edmonton.

“This Saturday’s Indigenous Celebration game is a chance for us to highlight the talent, culture and contributions of Indigenous communities,” said Karen Kondoski, director of fan engagement for the Edmonton Elks. “It’s going to be a powerful experience for fans.”

CFL, Wilson have developed customized footballs, featuring orange laces, orange Wilson branding and each club’s Indigenous logo to be used for kicking (Kevin Sousa/CFL.ca)

In Montreal, fans will be able to purchase a limited-edition Wilson football featuring the designs of Kahnawake artist Finnley Montour. The Alouettes will wear their Indigenous logo — also designed by Montour — on their helmets in the game against the visiting Calgary Stampeders.

The Elks will also sport their Indigenous logo on their helmets when they take to the field against the Saskatchewan Roughriders. Prior to the game, the Elks will host an Indigenous Makers Market, and the players will wear Orange jerseys in the warmup.

The half-time show will feature an Indigenous dance and drum show. And Orange shirts will be for sale with a percentage of the proceeds going towards the Indigenous Sports Council of Alberta.

The Bombers will welcome 1,000 Indigenous fans from 90 different communities across Manitoba for the clash with the Hamilton Tiger-Cats. Both teams will wear orange jerseys in the pre-game warmup to recognize Orange Shirt Day.

“This is reconciliation in action.” Settee said.

In Vancouver, the first 10,000 fans through the gates will receive free Orange T-shirts. The half-time show will feature the works of Indigenous fashion designers and an all-Indigenous fashion agency along with the First Nations rock band Bitterly Divine.

“I was never taught about the residential school system in school,” Taras said. “ I honestly wasn’t aware of the impact of intergenerational trauma and all those sorts of things. 

“As Canadians, I think it’s important for us to have empathy, to have understanding, to want to learn more and to be part of the solution together — to create the kind of country that we want to create, which obviously includes those who were here first.”