The Fanshawe Student Union (FSU), in partnership with the Institute of Indigenous Learning, will commemorate Orange Shirt Day with a concert on Sept. 30 in Forwell Hall from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. The first 100 students in attendance will receive a t-shirt designed by Andrea Kennedy, Indigenous Transition and Learning Advisor.

Kennedy was raised in Brockley, just outside London, Ont. Kennedy credits her grandparents for introducing her to Indigenous cultural practices and artistry. After earning a BA in Sociology and a Minor in Studio Arts from Mississippi Valley State University, Kennedy further honed her artistic skills with a certificate in Fine Arts Foundations at Fanshawe College.                                                                                

Her design is a personal and artistic reflection.                                                      

'The image I envisioned right away was inspired by artwork outside the Indigenous Student Centre, a mural of a woman with a braid flowing around her,' Kennedy explained. 'I wanted to create something that symbolized healing and continuity, so I designed two girls with their braids forming a circle, representing my sister and me. The design includes Indigenous medicines at the bottom to further connect it to our culture.'

The two girls in the design symbolize Kennedy’s family history and her reconnection with her Indigenous heritage.

'I wanted to show the two girls having the braid come full circle to the moon with all the medicines at the bottom, having that healing journey after what has happened,' Kennedy said.

Kennedy is Indigenous on her mother’s side, with roots from Vancouver and the Coast Salish people, a group of Pacific Northwest Coast Indigenous peoples in British Columbia.

'My grandfather attended a residential school, which has had a lasting impact on our family,' Kennedy said. 'The design is part of our healing journey.'

Though the design process was quick, taking just over a month, Kennedy developed her ideas meticulously.

'I created three rough concepts and got feedback from friends, my sister, and colleagues,” Kennedy said. “The final design took about four or five hours, but I made sure to refine it and reflect on its meaning before completing it.'

The shirts, funded by FSU, are more than just clothing.

'The purpose of the orange shirt is to remember the people who came up in residential schools. And so that's a little bit of a sad history, but it's something that we do to remember, understand, and show awareness that those things happened in Canada, and we're not brushing it under the rug,' Kennedy said.

For Kennedy, designing the t-shirt was a meaningful experience that strengthened her connection to her Indigenous roots and allowed her to use art to foster understanding.

'Orange Shirt Day, Sept. 30, has historically been a sad day, and many of us are going through a lot of healing; we also want to show that we can be resilient and celebrate. So, it's kind of a way for us to take away some of the negatives of that day, have a celebration, and hand out these shirts to 100 students for free, which FSU graciously funded,' Kennedy said.

The Orange Shirt Day movement originated from the story of Phyllis Webstad, a Northern Secwepemc (Shuswap) girl stripped of her new orange shirt on her first day at St. Joseph Mission Residential School in 1973. Webstad’s story became a symbol of how Indigenous children were systematically stripped of their cultural identities. The movement, which started in 2013, has since evolved into an annual day of remembrance for survivors of Canada’s residential school system and a call for truth and reconciliation.