A fourth-year English and creative writing student crafted a new orange shirt design as part of Western University’s recognition of National Day for Truth and Reconciliation, with proceeds from t-shirt sales supporting an Indigenous-led preservation initiative.
Kolbi Williams’ artwork, inspired by Haudenosaunee teachings, is featured on this year’s orange shirts sold at Western.
Kolbi Williams, a member of the Mohawk Nation from Six Nations of the Grand River, created the artwork titled Tewa:aráton and Its Creations, after a call for submissions from Western’s Office of Indigenous Initiatives. Her design illustrates a Haudenosaunee creation story about lacrosse, known in her community as Tewa:aráton, and its origins as a gift from the Creator to bring relief during a time of hardship and conflict.
According to Haudenosaunee tradition, in the first game of lacrosse played between four-legged animals and birds, the mouse and squirrel were ostracized by their own team because of their small size. They asked to join the birds, who accepted them as teammates and fashioned wings for them. With the game tied at nightfall, the mouse – transformed into a bat – ultimately scored the winning goal.
“This story teaches us not to judge another by the way they look because you don’t know what they’re capable of,” Williams said. “It’s the same in the community – you might not know what someone’s teachings and gifts are.”
Orange shirt design supports reconciliation and First Nations’ history near London
Williams says this message is at the heart of reconciliation as Canadians reckon with the legacy of the Residential School System for Indigenous children. From the 19th century until 1996, more than 150,000 First Nations, Inuit and Métis children were forced to attend church-run residential schools where they were stripped of their languages, cultures and traditions.
(L to R) Mike Cywink, community engagement coordinator for Indigenous Initiatives, Mikayla Antone-Gregory, Indigenous Students’ Association president and Kolbi Williams, student artist, wear orange shirts symbolizing the loss of identity, culture and family experienced by Indigenous children in residential schools, while honouring children who never returned home. (Western Housing and Ancillary Services)
“Coming together to appreciate all people’s gifts is one way to better understand and share the gifts that children in residential schools were denied access to and punished for using,” Williams said.
Survivors have described abuse, neglect, malnutrition, harsh working conditions and unsanitary living quarters. The National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation documented thousands of children who died at the schools and says the true number is likely much higher.
Orange Shirt Day began in 2013 as a grassroots movement under the rallying cry “Every Child Matters” to remember the children who never made it home and honour survivors of residential schools. It evolved into the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation in 2021 to promote awareness of the harms caused by residential schools and grow reconciliation across Canada.
Wearing an orange shirt is considered a way of standing with Indigenous communities in remembrance and healing. Orange shirts with Williams’ design will be sold year-round at the Dellelce Family Bookstore in Western’s University Community Centre. Proceeds will support the Save the Barn campaign, a project to preserve the last remaining building from Mount Elgin Industrial Institute, a residential school on what is now Chippewas of the Thames First Nation, near London, Ont.
Preserving Indigenous history and language at former Mount Elgin residential school
Mount Elgin, one of the first residential schools in Canada, operated until 1946. It included a farm where children were forced into labour tending livestock and growing crops, though the harvest was rarely used to supplement their meagre diets. A barn bearing inscriptions students left on the walls is the only structure still standing. The First Nation has been fundraising to restore it as an interpretive centre to document local history and help revitalize the community’s language and culture.
“Our communities did so much work to keep our language, culture and people alive in a time when everything was against them,” Williams said. “It’s a big part of why the Save the Barn campaign is such a vital part of National Day for Truth and Reconciliation here in London. While this city was being developed, the trauma of residential schools was happening just a half hour away to local First Nations children.”
Western supports National Day for Truth and Reconciliation by designating September 30 as a non-instructional day with no regular classes, allowing the campus community to participate in educational and commemorative events. Attendees are encouraged to wear orange. Williams said she hopes her design prompts meaningful reflection on the ongoing responsibility to remember the past, learn from it and carry those lessons forward.
“When people put on an orange shirt, I hope they have reconciliation in mind and put it into action in their daily lives when thinking about and interacting with any Indigenous Peoples.”
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