Orange shirts will be seen across the country on Wednesday as Canadians mark National Day for Truth and Reconciliation.
But as the Every Child Matters message has grown, so has the amount of merchandise carrying it, and Indigenous designers here in Winnipeg say the bigger question is how to make sure the meaning behind the shirt isn’t lost.
“It’s an adult eagle kind of, you know, putting his wing around the baby eagle with the phrase every child matters,” said Sean Rayland-Boubar, the founder and CEO of Red Rebel Armour.
Inside Red Rebel Armour’s Winnipeg shop, orange shirts are being made one at a time. Rayland-Boubar says their design has been licensed through the Orange Shirt Society, something he says was important from the start.
Orange shirts being made by Winnipeg Indigenous-owned company Red Rebel Armour to mark National Day for Truth and Reconciliation. (Mitchell Ringos, CityNews)
“Since the beginning, since we started printing orange shirts, we wanted to honour Phyllis Webstad. And we wanted to make sure that we’re doing it right. We’re not just trying to just sell orange shirts just to sell orange shirts,” said Rayland-Boubar.
But Rayland-Boubar says demand is lower this year. While major retailers do feature designs from Indigenous artists, he says there is still an important difference between something being Indigenous-designed and the business itself being Indigenous-owned.
“Some of these bigger retailers obviously are probably doing 10,000 pieces, right? So that’s a lot of resources leaving the community as opposed to staying in the community. So that’s the big difference between Indigenous-designed and Indigenous-owned,” said Rayland-Boubar.
Rayland-Boubar says about 70 per cent of Red Rebel’s Orange Shirt Day sales come from outside Winnipeg, compared with about 30 per cent locally. Their sales also help fund an employment program for Indigenous people exiting the criminal justice system.
“We’ve worked with, I think, about 14 or 15 relatives over the years. And we’re a smaller organization, so it’s more focused on building that relationship, working long-term.”
Orange shirts being made by Winnipeg Indigenous-owned company Red Rebel Armour to mark National Day for Truth and Reconciliation. (Mitchell Ringos, CityNews)
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