Starting Wednesday, Maritime Youth Hockey League players will don specially designed jerseys to celebrate indigenous groups in the country as part of the organization’s Reconciliation Week.
The 12 teams in the league will take turns wearing sports jerseys that feature an image of children outside a residential school, along with the phrase “All Boys Matter.” Each team will wear the jerseys, which also incorporate their logos, for a home game from now until December 5.
League president Steve Dykeman said in an interview Tuesday that league governors agreed to honor indigenous communities after receiving good feedback on a t-shirt project last year designed to celebrate frontline workers during the COVID-19 pandemic.
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They were motivated, he added, by the discovery of hundreds of anonymous graves of indigenous children in residential schools in the country that began earlier this year.
In May, a First Nation in Kamloops, BC announced that they had found what are believed to be the remains of 215 indigenous children in unidentified graves at the site of a former residential school. The following month, Cowessess First Nation in Saskatchewan revealed the discovery of more than 700 unnamed graves.
“We wanted to have some kind of recognition,” Dykeman said. “The goal is really to show our respect and shed light on what happened.”
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Bob Gloade, head of Millbrook First Nation in Truro, NS, called the T-shirt campaign a positive initiative.
“When you have members of the indigenous community … playing in the league and being part of (the initiative), it’s very nice to see it,” Gloade said in an interview Tuesday. “I just see it as a positive step forward and part of reconciliation.”
Jersey designer Jeff Rector said that along with the “ominous” image of a group of young indigenous children gathered outside the Kamloops Indian residential school, the phrase “Every Child Matters” is written in English, mi’kmaq and wolastoqey. , the main dialects. of indigenous communities in Las Marítimas.
Rector said he consulted members of local First Nations communities to help him capture aspects of East Coast indigenous groups in his design process. Like Dykeman, she said she hopes the images convey a message of conscience and respect.
“I wanted to show it to the kids,” he said. “They are images that have been burned into our minds since the news broke. It is something we must all remember and keep close to as we work towards reconciliation and build a better future together. “
One of the consultants hired to help with the design process was Everett Sanipass, a former NHL player for Elsipogtog First Nation in New Brunswick.
Sanipass, a forward who played six seasons with the Chicago Blackhawks and Quebec Nordiques, said in an interview Wednesday that the league’s jersey initiative reflects the teamwork that is key to the sport.
“We cannot move forward without educating ourselves and coming to understand that this is history,” Sanipass said. “The message is clear: people want change, they want reconciliation.”
The new jerseys will debut Wednesday night when Grand Falls Rapids host the Miramichi Timberwolves.
After the special reconciliation schedule, the teams will auction off the shirts and the proceeds will go to indigenous communities in the region.
This Canadian Press report was first published on November 24, 2021.
© 2021 The Canadian Press
Reference-globalnews.ca