Métis clay artist Christine Brouzes hopes people will wear orange, not just on the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation, but year-round as a means of support for their Indigenous neighbours.
She said that’s one of the reasons she makes orange pins.
“A lot of professionals can’t wear an orange shirt because of suits, construction wear, scrubs, so I thought, ‘I’ll make a pin.'”
However, for Brouzes, Sept. 30 is more than just a day to wear orange: it is a day to “listen and to not be afraid to ask questions,” she said, and “to take time and reflect on what it means to be Canadian, and what Canadian history means to you.”
Wearing orange, she said, is just a symbol of that reflection.
“Wearing an orange shirt or an orange pin doesn’t mean that you’re the expert on the topic and can educate everybody. It might just mean that you’re willing to listen, and you’re willing to be part of building a better Canada.”
Brouzes is encouraged that others want to share that message.
Leading up to Saturday, Brouzes’ creations are being sold at The Amsterdam Team Room in downtown Winnipeg, following an invitation from owner Mark Turner.
Turner said he moved to Winnipeg in 2014.
“This is an educational process for me, especially being a recent settler,” he said.
“As a non-Indigenous settler and a steward of a business that’s on Treaty 1 Territory, it’s important for me to learn more and also educate the people in my life and my staff,” Turner said.
Despite National Day for Truth and Reconciliation remaining unrecognized as a statutory holiday in Manitoba, he is closing his restaurant anyway.
“I think it’s important to close down to raise awareness and honour the survivors of the residential schools,” he said.
Turner said he gives his staff voluntary homework and sends them a list of things they can do on Orange Shirt Day to gain awareness, self-reflect and educate themselves.
Brenda Gunn, academic and research director with the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation, urges Canadians to deepen their understanding like this.
“Learning is only the first step,” she said. “The next step is taking action, so I think Sept. 30 is a really important time for people to make a commitment to take action for reconciliation, and then next Sept. 30, you check in. What did you do? Where were you successful? What were some of the challenges?”
For Turner, that meant going beyond shutting down for the day, like he has the last two years. So this year, he said he reached out to Brouzes after finding her on Instagram about a month ago.
“I feel like as a business owner, I should, and could, be doing something more. It’s something my staff all feel the same (about) as well,” he said.
The additional effort encouraged the artist, who donates proceeds from her pins to organizations like the Indian Residential School Survivors’ Society.
“That’s what I’m so excited about because it’s the sentiment that’s more powerful than the sale,” she said.
Gunn said she thinks Canada has come a long way, but there’s still a distance to go.
“I think Canada really has come much further in their openness to have these conversations and to start thinking about their role. But we definitely have a long way to go to change those deep systemic challenges in Canada,” she said.
First, Gunn said people have to learn the history and understand the truth. Then reconciliation can come.
“It’s truth before reconciliation,” she said.
— with files from Global’s Rosanna Hempel