Nisga’a Artist Chantelle Trainor-Matties Every Child Matters protective bear paw motive adorned the chests of Canadian Armed Forces across the country for Day of National Truth and Reconciliation. CAF personnel at CFB Shilo participated in ceremonies and a community walk on Sept. 28 to commemorate the federally recognized day on Oct. 30. Photo: K-J Millar/Shilo Stag News
K-J Millar
Shilo Stag News
New bi-lingual National Truth and Reconciliation Day t-shirts designed for the Canadian Armed Forces by Indigenous Nisga’a artist Chantelle Trainor-Matties sold out at CFB Shilo well before the official day. The specifically designed shirts were available at CAF Bases across the nation.
The artist told Shilo Stag News that the bright orange shirts adorned with a small bear paw inset on a larger bear paw symbolize protection, support and love.
“It is what every child should feel. The children taken by the system had that stripped away from them,” she said.
Orange shirts have become a symbol of the Every Child Matters movement after 215 Indigenous children’s bodies were detected in graves at a Kamloops residential school in 2021. The number continues to climb across the country.
The Canadian Armed Forces ordered 2200 of Trainor-Matties’ shirts and have been ordering them for the past couple of years. The artist redesigned the shirts in 2023 due to popular demand and to be bilingual for the CAF, said Michael Hickson of Leading Edge, the t-shirt promotion agency licensed to supply the clothing.
“I think [the bilingual shirts] become representative of Canada as a whole in a better way … I think it’s a great and active way to promote reconciliation,” said Hickson, who is of Tāłtān and Tlingit ancestry.
Since 2021, CAF members have been authorized to wear orange shirts under their CADPAT tunics (Canadian disruptive pattern camouflage) for the National Day of Truth and Reconciliation – for as long as the Government of Canada has designated the day.
“I am so glad that [members and individuals] on the CFB Shilo Base are able to wear the shirts. It is truly an honour and means a lot to me to see that much support,” Trainor-Matties said.
The expediential growth in the past few years of Every Child Matters clothing is an ode to Phyllis Webstad, who, as a young girl, was taken to residential school in 1973, where she had a new orange shirt her grandmother purchased for her taken away.
Webstad’s story was paramount in growing a local community event in Williams Lake, B.C., into a national holiday of remembrance for residential school survivors and those children who did not return home.
Trainor-Matties said reaching the final design for her t-shirt artwork took “quite a while.”
“I wanted it to be simple and unique but with a powerful message. I chose to illustrate an adult bear paw with a silhouette of a bear cub paw inside as if they are holding hands.”
The Nisag’a and Metis artist owns her own business, Frettchan Studios, located in British Columbia. She is a visual creator specializing in illustration, graphic design, painting and mural work. Her work ranges from bold contemporary Northwest Coast formline to charming cartoons to painterly realism.
“I like to use animal symbolism in my work. I find that we can learn a lot from the natural world. For this design, I had in mind the protectiveness a mother bear displays for her cubs,” she said.
With her portfolio of artwork growing to include showcases, markets and trade shows, her work has been displayed in multiple galleries in British Columbia and is seen internationally.
The Truth and Reconciliation t-shirts are not the only time Trainor-Matties work has fostered cultural unity. In 2022, she designed a mural for an intersection wall in New Orleans, Louisiana. The Canadian government contributed $10,000 for the art initiative in partnership with Arts New Orleans to recognize the shared French-Cajun history of Canada and New Orleans.