Why Tarek Wears An Orange Shirt on September 30th
Author bio: Tarek Mausilli is Cree from Waterhen Lake, Saskatchewan and is a BA student majoring in Political Science and minoring in French Language and Literature.
I Wear An Orange Shirt
I do not know how to express how I feel or how to even identify myself. For over a decade I grew up living abroad and during that time from when I was born, I didn’t even know I was Aboriginal. My parents separated when I was very young and as a kid that is traumatic and I really couldn’t comprehend the gravity of it all until I came back to Canada in 2012.
The concept of racism and discrimination didn’t faze me because I had no idea what that was until I started to experience the hate, passive aggressiveness and negative undertones that come with being Indigenous.
I started to analyze every aspect of my everyday life; participating in sports, shopping, schooling, etc. The way society viewed me wasn’t as a human being but as some sort of a class of animal subspecies.
Everything that we as Indigenous people do is political — the spaces that we occupy, the institutions that we attend, to (which is even more vehement) existing.
My grandmother was in a Residential School and is still alive to this day in her 80’s. My mother passed away in 2016 and it was at that moment I started to be proud of who I was and began a resurgence of my culture and identity. I have had quite a few ups and downs but no matter how bad I feel, I won’t give up today or tomorrow or the next day.
One of my greatest inspirations comes from an Argentine revolutionary and I hope that one day we can achieve Indigenous sovereignty here, on Turtle Island. “The first duty of a revolutionary is to be educated.” Ernesto Guevara.
I wear an orange shirt to honor my grandmother who attended Residential School and to recommit to my education as my first duty as a revolutionary for Indigenous sovereignty.
For another personal story, Jackie, Arts’ Indigenous Student Engagement & Recruitment Specialist, explains why she wears an orange shirt — and why you might want to too: https://medium.com/ualberta-arts-insider/why-wear-an-orange-shirt-on-september-30th-377e24a61988
Consider purchasing your Orange Shirt from the University of Alberta Bookstore.
Unique to the U of A, First Peoples’ House has created an orange shirt with our Artist-in-Residence Jerry Whitehead. Proceeds from the sales will go back to honour our intergenerational survivors of Indian Residential schools at the U of A and will go directly into cultural programming.
https://bookstore.ualberta.ca/p-40418-orange-shirt-day-t-shirt.aspx
For more info on Residential Schools:
https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/residential-schools
For more info on Reconciliation:
https://reconciliationcanada.ca/
If you have been triggered by this article and you need to speak with someone please phone:
- ACCESS 24/7 at 780–424–2424, ext 2
- the Kids Help Phone at 1–800–668–6868, or
- the 24 Hour Distress Line at 780–482–4357
- 24-hour crisis line: 1–866–925–4419
Or reach out to the First Peoples’ House Wellness Worker — make an appointment with fph@ualberta.ca
