Every Child Matters T-Shirts
 
September 30 is the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation aka. Orange Shirt Day for both Canada and the United States. This day honors and brings awareness about the Indigenous children who survived and those who died at Indian Residential Boarding schools.
 
Did you know that Minnesota operated 16 Indian Boarding Schools? The United States had 350 government funded boarding schools from 1860 – 1990s where more than 150,000 American Indian children were taken from their families. Over 6,500 unmarked children’s graves have been unearthed at various boarding schools so far this year across Canada and the US. In June, the U.S. Department of Interior Secretary Deb Haaland announced a comprehensive review/investigation called the Federal Indian Boarding School Initiative looking into the harsh injustices that occurred at boarding schools across the US.
 
Recently, AICHO was approached by Fond du Lac Ojibwe tribal member and elder Joyce LaPorte who asked us if we would make orange shirts to honor the children impacted by the boarding schools. We listened. We commissioned artist Larissa Greensky, Little Traverse Bay Band of Odawa in Michigan tribal member, who created the beautiful artistic design which Moira Villiard, Fond du Lac Band of Ojibwe direct descendant, created a file to be used on t-shirts. The t-shirts were printed by Duluth Screen Print.