"Every Child Matters" screen printed orange tee shirt. Machine wash cold. 60% Cotton/ 40% Polyester Jersey

Toys “R” Us Canada will donate the proceeds from the sale of our Every Child Matters tee to Starlight Children’s Foundation Canada. The proceeds will provide an Indigenous Book Program to support hospitals with a large population of Aboriginal pediatric patients. Books featuring dialects including Swampy Cree, Woodland Cree, Ojibwe and Inuktitut will be provided.

For over 30 years, Starlight Children's Foundation Canada has been proudly serving all communities across Canada, including Indigenous youth and their families. Proceeds will be used to distribute distractive programs that will amplify the voices of First Nations, and Inuit and Métis.

PHOENIX (Wilson) BAAPAASE MESSAGE

I wanted to create something authentic, without using stereotypical feather designs, or using the handprint that symbolizes other Indigenous Organizations.

I have based my designs on:

the sweetgrass braid - an Indigenous medicine that was banned by the residential schools
a circle - a symbol with no beginning and no end, which is important in our cultures; for example in medicine wheels
children holding hands - they had only each other after they were torn from their parents as young as age two
the dates - the first time a school boarded First Nations boys was 1831 and it continued from there; the last school closed in 1996

My design depicts the children as simple paper dolls: they were seen as all being the same. The schools cut their hair to make them look the same, changed their names and erased their Indigenous identities.

My design is not intended to make others feel bad, but to raise awareness: that for 150 years these schools existed in plain sight, and that thousands of children died at the hands of those that were supposed to protect them.