The inspiration behind a Saskatoon woman's Truth and Reconciliation day shirt design
Shelby Omani is Saskatoon’s latest t-shirt designer, and the product she helped to design has been flying off the shelves.
“It's crazy, like it's just a design I came up with and I thought it looked good,” said the 27-year-old. “It was sold out first day.”
Omani is a student at Saskatchewan Indian Institute of Technologies in downtown Saskatoon, where the school’s Centre for Innovation partnered with Hardpressed in a contest where students would create designs for Orange Shirt Day.
“Essentially Hardpressed came in as a mentor; they would print the shirts, they would manage the sales of the T-shirts, and then we would be responsible for finding the student talent,” said Ryan Jimmy, project lead for the Centre for Innovation.
Omani says initially she had trouble coming up with ideas for a design.
“I asked my sister to see if she had any ideas, and she sent me a picture of my kokum,” she said. “Just all the ideas just started flowing in.”
Omani’s kokum, Irene “Stella” Peekeekoot, was a residential school survivor, attending St. Michaels Residential School in Duck Lake.
“She would tell stories of her abuse,” said Omani. “One of the stories I remember, she would have to kneel on cement floors for speaking Cree, and strapped by a yardstick on her hand for writing left-handed.”
Omani’s design features the silhouette of a woman, her Kokhum, with the smaller outline of a child. The words "every child matters" are centred over the child, with handprints along the outside of the design.
“I thought to put the little girl behind, and the hair is kind of wrapping around like protection, because the hair was chopped off when she was in residential school,” said Omani.
Jimmy says an elders advisory committee selected the winning design.
“I think what stood out for them was that this submission was celebrating a survivor, and their accomplishments of overcoming some of those traumas,” he said.
“We've purchased about 500 (blank) shirts from different vendors to send the T-shirts to the Regina and Saskatoon campus so that the students can learn how to create their own orange T-shirts using Shelby's design.”
Hardpressed says within the first 20 minutes of the shirts being available, 80 had sold, while 400 to 500 shirts were sold within the first hour and a half.
“It just kind of like whoa, like people cared about my design and like my stepmom and a few other people said they got emotional after seeing it, and for me, I can't believe it,” said Omani.
She says she’ll be proud to see people wearing the shirts inspired by her kokum on Sept. 30, the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation.
“Me and my sisters are thankful for her strength and love,” she said. “She chose a life of sobriety from drugs and alcohol and I also chose to live my life in that same way. She was my role model.”
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
Quebec nurse had to clean up after husband's death in Montreal hospital
On a night she should have been mourning, a nurse from Quebec's Laurentians region says she was forced to clean up her husband after he died at a hospital in Montreal.
Northern Ont. lawyer who abandoned clients in child protection cases disbarred
A North Bay, Ont., lawyer who abandoned 15 clients – many of them child protection cases – has lost his licence to practise law.
Bank of Canada officials split on when to start cutting interest rates
Members of the Bank of Canada's governing council were split on how long the central bank should wait before it starts cutting interest rates when they met earlier this month.
Maple Leafs fall to Bruins in Game 3, trail series 2-1
Brad Marchand scored twice, including the winner in the third period, and added an assist as the Boston Bruins downed the Toronto Maple Leafs 4-2 to take a 2-1 lead in their first-round playoff series Wednesday
Cuban government apologizes to Montreal-area family after delivering wrong body
Cuba's foreign affairs minister has apologized to a Montreal-area family after they were sent the wrong body following the death of a loved one.
'It was instant karma': Viral video captures failed theft attempt in Nanaimo, B.C.
Mounties in Nanaimo, B.C., say two late-night revellers are lucky their allegedly drunken antics weren't reported to police after security cameras captured the men trying to steal a heavy sign from a downtown business.
What is changing about Canada's capital gains tax and how does it impact me?
The federal government's proposed change to capital gains taxation is expected to increase taxes on investments and mainly affect wealthy Canadians and businesses. Here's what you need to know about the move.
New Indigenous loan guarantee program a 'really big deal,' Freeland says at Toronto conference
Canada's Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland was among the 1,700 delegates attending the two-day First Nations Major Projects Coalition (FNMPC) conference that concluded Tuesday in Toronto.
'Life was not fair to him': Daughter of N.B. man exonerated of murder remembers him as a kind soul
The daughter of a New Brunswick man recently exonerated from murder, is remembering her father as somebody who, despite a wrongful conviction, never became bitter or angry.