Artist donates orange shirts, Indigenous books to Montreal schools to 'spark a conversation'

An Inuk artist has designed, made and donated more than 200 orange shirts to schools in Montreal's West Island in an effort to start a dialogue and help strengthen Indigenous history education.

"So many Canadians are not informed or they've never been educated on what Indigenous people went through," said Jennifer Qupanuaq May.

Following the discovery of unmarked graves at residential school sites, she was determined to contribute to the dialogue about Indigenous history.

May has made about 400 shirts over the last three months in the English, French and Mohawk languages as well as four dialects of Inuktitut and two of Cree.

"Just the children going home with the shirts, maybe it will spark a conversation within the family and they may want to learn more about Indigenous history," she said.

"It may not be the happiest history of Canada, but it's still important."

Thursday marks the first National Day for Truth and Reconciliation. It is also known as Orange Shirt Day. The orange shirts honour the Indigenous children who were sent away to residential schools in Canada as well as their families.

May is donating half of the shirts to her children's three schools in Pointe-Claire, Que.

She is also donating books about Indigenous history and communities because, she said, it's important for young Canadians to have a stronger grasp of the subject.

She plans to sell the rest of the shirts to pay for the cost of the whole operation. John Abbott College, for example, ordered customized shirts.

Schools aren't given the right tools to teach Indigenous history, or about the residential schools, she said, and Indigenous people need to be more involved in designing curriculums.

May's father attended Federal Indian day school and her uncle is a survivor of a residential school. She said, "intergenerational trauma is a thing."

First she learned, then she made

May said her project began with first learning how to make the shirts. Then she ordered the shirts and vinyl in bulk, using a machine to cut the design of the vinyl.

"I then take off the excess vinyl and I put the vinyl on the shirt and I use the heat press," she said.

She developed a system to get it all done faster, but it was still very time consuming, taking more than 100 hours, she said.

Her nine-year-old daughter, Qupanuaq May-Ekomiak, has been giving a helping hand. She said she appreciates working with her mom, but the work is emotional.

"It feels kind of sad and happy" because she has family members who were forced into residential schools, she said.

"But they're survivors, so I feel good."

Buy orange shirts with caution

The owner of The Purple Dragonfly Trading Post in Kahnawake, Que., has also been making and selling her own orange shirts.

"The colour orange represents a time of paying homage, paying respect to the acknowledgement of what happened in residential schools," said Leah Diome.

However, not all orange shirts are the same.

Indigenous designers are cautioning people wishing to mark the first National Day for Truth and Reconciliation by wearing an orange shirt to avoid vendors looking to turn a profit while purporting to represent Indigenous causes.

Profit-driven online vendors have also popped up on sites like Facebook, Amazon and Etsy, in many cases featuring art stolen from Indigenous artists.

Keith Henry, CEO of Indigenous Tourism Association of Canada, said he's disappointed but not surprised to see that companies are cashing in on a day that dedicated to reconciliation.

"There's a lot of organizations and companies that have gotten into the commercial space of selling orange t-shirts because it's in the national interest and millions of t-shirts will be bought," he said.

"It's not a surprise — Indigenous artwork is exploited by the billions every year."