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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.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe do our training camp in Kamloops,\u201d said Jamie Taras, the Lions\u2019 director of community relations. \u201cSo the whole thing started when we got the news of the unmarked graves at Tk\u2019eml\u00faps te Secwe?pemc, which is the First Nations group out of Kamloops. So that\u2019s kind of our second home<\/p>\n
\u201cWith our colour being orange and orange shirt day, we thought it was a natural fit.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Lions work alongside the Indigenous community each year to change up the look and feel of the event.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis year, our theme is from surviving to thriving,\u201d Taras said. \u201cThe elders and the knowledge keepers of the indigenous community don\u2019t want to just be known as survivors. They also want to be recognized for the wonderful things that they have contributed to the community.\u201d<\/p>\n
A sampling of those wonderful things \u2014 created through resiliency \u2014is on display starting Friday night in Montreal and Vancouver and culminating Saturday in Winnipeg and Edmonton.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis Saturday\u2019s Indigenous Celebration game is a chance for us to highlight the talent, culture and contributions of Indigenous communities,\u201d said Karen Kondoski, director of fan engagement for the Edmonton Elks. \u201cIt\u2019s going to be a powerful experience for fans.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/Indigenous_Logo_Football_2025.jpg\"){kind=logo}
<\/p>\n
CFL, Wilson have developed customized footballs, featuring orange laces, orange Wilson branding and each club\u2019s Indigenous logo to be used for kicking (Kevin Sousa\/CFL.ca)<\/p>\n
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 \u2014\u00a0also designed by Montour \u2014\u00a0on their helmets in the game against the visiting Calgary Stampeders.<\/p>\n
The Elks will also sport their Indigenous logo on their helmets when they take to the field against the Saskatchewan\u00a0Roughriders.\u00a0Prior to the game, the Elks will host an Indigenous Makers Market, and the players will wear Orange jerseys in the warmup.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is reconciliation in action.\u201d Settee said.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was never taught about the residential school system in school,\u201d Taras said. \u201c I honestly wasn\u2019t aware of the impact of intergenerational trauma and all those sorts of things.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cAs Canadians, I think it\u2019s important for us to have empathy, to have understanding, to want to learn more and to be part of the solution together \u2014 to create the kind of country that we want to create, which obviously includes those who were here first.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"CFL teams across the country will honour residential school survivors, their families and communities this weekend in conjunction…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":170391,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[437],"tags":[49,48,521,522,520,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-170390","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cfl","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-canadian-football-league","11":"tag-canadianfootballleague","12":"tag-cfl","13":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/170390","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=170390"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/170390\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/170391"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=170390"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=170390"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=170390"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}