Indigenous entrepreneur’s orange shirt dream‑turned‑reality spurs reconciliation efforts at Dal – Dalhousie University

September 27, 2024

For the third year in a row, the Dalhousie Bookstore is selling Indigenous-made orange shirts to support the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation Day on Sept. 30.

The store will contribute 100 per cent of profits from sales of the shirts to the Mi’kmaw Native Friendship Centre in Halifax. The $25 shirts are being showcased in the bookstore until stock runs out to inspire students to support continuous reconciliation and healing with Indigenous peoples in Canada.

“Every dollar counts because every child matters,” says Derek Lewis, the mind behind the shirts.

Lewis is a treaty-holding Mi’kmaw and an enrolled member of the Millbrook (We’kopekwitk) First Nation, near Truro, Nova Scotia. He studied English and sociology at Dalhousie before becoming the first Indigenous cell-phone game developer to license games in Canada. In 2004, Lewis owned and operated Red Arrow Digital College, a private career college helping Mi’kmaw students receive a post-secondary diploma. He later received a Master and Doctorate of Education.

Read More: https://www.dal.ca/news/2024/09/27/indigenous-orange-shirt-dalhousie-bookstore.html