This week's Teachings Tuesday is shared by the incredible artist, Maynard Johnny Jr., who has roots in both Coast Salish and Kwakwaka'wakw territories. In 2021, Maynard designed an orange shirt that carries a powerful message, and in this video, he explains its origin. Drawing from his lived experiences, Maynard shares his truth, which has inspired the 'Be the Change' movement linked to the orange shirt.
Below is a transcription of a video he recorded with Hope and Health. Thank you, Maynard and Deana, for allowing us to share your work.
"This was one of the images in the design, and it's two faces, a female and a male, a boy and a girl, sharing the same mouth. Inside the mouth is a maple leaf with a cross. The reason I put the maple and the cross in the mouth is to signify that they were forced to quit speaking their language and practicing their culture by the government and by the church. I put it upside down because, in modern colonialism, the upside-down flag is a sign of distress, which is what the Canadian government caused by supporting and funding residential schools. What they did to our children was evil—whether they want to admit it or not, it's the truth. You add oppression, systemic racism...how is a person supposed to thrive? You throw the Indian Act into the mix? I'm a Status Indian, a ward of Canada. My land is in my name, but technically, I don't own it. It's under trust with my tribe, which is under the trust of the government, with the Queen.
In the 1980s and even into the '90s, my mom couldn’t get a job because she was Indigenous. Can you imagine that being acceptable anywhere else? They would say, 'Oh, we don't want to hire you because you're native, you're Indian.' That's systemic racism. That's oppression. The Indian Act is oppression. How are we supposed to thrive if we can’t move forward in any way? We weren't allowed to leave the reserve until 1953, so my grandparents couldn’t leave without written permission. How often do you think the Indian Agent actually answered? There’s so much oppression, so much systemic racism: the Indian Act, the Potlatch Ban, the residential schools. The Indian Act is still intact today. These things need to change. We need to change them so we can thrive as people—not only as Indigenous people but as Canadians as a whole. We need to change the Indian Act and get educated about the history of Canada. This is a start.
The discovery of 215 children is a start. You ask any survivor or their families—they’ve known this their whole lives. These are horrific things that happened to our kids. You get 215 kids in Kamloops, 715, 51... Be the change! Murder. Imagine what they went through. They weren't lost. We didn’t lose our language or culture because of residential schools—it was forced away from us. And our kids were murdered for it.”
Maynard’s orange shirt design is more than art—it’s a call to action.
As allies, wearing our orange shirts year-round signifies a commitment to truth and reconciliation, reminding us that this is not just one day of awareness but a lifetime of change. We must confront the dark history of residential schools and never be silent in the face of denial or erasure.
By learning, speaking out, and standing up for justice, we honor the survivors and carry forward their stories, ensuring that Canada’s true history is never forgotten.
Tell the Truth. Be the change.
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