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Syilx artist selected for Indigenous Night Jerseys for Penticton Vees

Click to play video: 'Penticton Vees host Indigenous Night'
Penticton Vees host Indigenous Night
The Penticton Vees will be wearing orange jerseys designed by a local Indigenous artist on Friday. The night honours many children and families impacted by residential schools across Canada. Sydney Morton reports. – Jan 31, 2025

After entering a contest on a whim, Wynona Paul says she was jumping for joy when she found out she had won.

The contest: the opportunity to have her art featured on the WHL Penticton Vees’ Indigenous Night orange jerseys.

The logo the Indigenous multi-disciplinary designed honours the Four Food Chiefs.

“Chief Black Bear skəmxist, he was the first one to lay his life down for our people and the three other food chiefs followed, there is Saskatoon Berry siyaʔ, the chief of all of the things that are good that grow above the ground, [Chief Salmon] n’tyxtix is the chief of all of the animals in the water and Chief Bitterroot, spitlem that is chief of all that is good below ground,” said Paul.
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The orange jerseys will be worn at the game on Jan. 31, when the Vees face off against the Cowichan Valley Capitals. Then, the jerseys will be auctioned off, with all the funds raised going toward the Orange Shirt Society.

“It’s celebrating culture but also [raising] awareness and educating our public, our fanbase and our community about the trials and tribulations and the suffering our local Indigenous population has gone through the residential school program,” said Fraser Rodgers, Penticton Vees’ vice-president of business operations.

For the Indigenous artist, being able to help raise funds for the society is a full-circle moment.

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“I am learning who I am through my art, it has been so amazing. I am the first generation in my family to not go to residential school, so my aunties, uncles and my mother went to residential school,” said Paul.

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“For us to take this step is very big. It’s one big step towards the reconciliation of my people and being able to revitalize our culture and to revitalize our language.”

Paul will also take the ice wearing her own orange jersey to sing the Okanagan Song with her sister, nephew and a friend at the South Okanagan Event Centre on Indigenous Night.

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