![\"A](\"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/Orange-T-Shirt-Calhoun-Picture.jpg\")
Brock graduate Marty Myers (BA \u201921) displays the shirts he helped create in support of the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation.<\/p><\/div>\n
The initiative has since come to fruition and the shirts are now available through Calhoun, the St. Catharines-based company Myers founded in 1973. All proceeds from sales of the shirt will go to the Mohawk Village Memorial Park<\/a> in Brantford, located on the site of the former Mohawk Institute Indian Residential School that operated from 1834 to 1970.<\/p>\n Myers said he was \u201cfortunate\u201d to be among Vansickle\u2019s students, who gained a \u201cstrong sense of connection to the Indigenous community\u201d through her teaching.<\/p>\n \u201cHopefully, this project will give us a connection to our Indigenous neighbours and allow the healing process to continue,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Vansickle said Myers is \u201ctaking reconciliation to heart.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cHe’s trying to make a real and meaningful difference in his field,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n As National Day for Truth and Reconciliation becomes more widely recognized, shirts like the one designed by Calhoun and Doxtador-Swamp make a statement and can initiate important conversations, Vansickle said.<\/p>\n \u201cIt opens doors for us to talk about Canada’s past with First Nations people and the acts of genocide that have been committed against us,\u201d she said. \u201cTo work towards truth and reconciliation, we need to know the truth. We need to appreciate it. We need to listen to it, even the parts that make Canadians feel uncomfortable. We’ll never get to the reconciliation part until we acknowledge the truths.\u201d<\/p>\n Christopher Chapman (BA \u201922), Kanerahtaien Doxtador-Swamp and Sherri Vansickle wear the shirts with Doxtador-Swamp\u2019s design available for the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation.<\/p><\/div>\n Doxtador-Swamp describes her design<\/a> as an expression of the impact of residential schools on Indigenous people and communities, and the ways that nurturing Indigenous cultures and languages can help to heal some of the damage done by these institutions. The artwork includes a slogan in Mohawk, Akw\u00e9:kon Ratiks\u00e2ok\u00f2n:a Ratii\u00e2tan\u00f3:ron, that translates to \u201cAll of the children are precious.\u201d<\/p>\n Having the Mohawk language on the shirt has an impact, Vansickle said, because one of the ways residential schools silenced Indigenous people was by cutting children off from the languages they would have spoken at home.<\/p>\n \u201cMy grandmother went to residential school, and she wouldn’t teach us Mohawk,\u201d she said. \u201cShe was a fluent speaker and she lived with me growing up, but it’s because she was afraid we’d get beaten for it.\u201d<\/p>\n More information about the T-shirts with Doxtador-Swamp\u2019s design can be found at calhounstore.com<\/a><\/p>\n![\"Three](\"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/Orange-shirts-1050x745.jpg\")