Orange Shirt Day Design Places Focus on the Guardians – Castlegar Source

September 7th, 2023

A safe and supportive future for Indigenous children was the creative fuel used for second-year student Payton Maffioli’s Orange Shirt Day design that will be worn across the Selkirk College region on September 30.

The chosen design for 2023 features two bear pawprints, a smaller cub’s mark inside the mother’s protective imprint is surrounded by a sacred circle that includes two feathers and the words “every child matters” written in the language of the Secwépemc peoples. A student in the Recreation, Fish & Wildlife Program based out of the Castlegar Campus, Maffioli tapped into her Métis culture and a desire to create a more sustainable future for inspiration.

“It makes me want to cry, I’m really proud to have this design on the shirt and in the community,” says the 19-year-old. “This goes beyond a shirt, it needs to be in everyone’s hearts and everyone’s minds what truth and reconciliation is… what protecting our children should be. I am very passionate about strong futures for children and it makes me very emotional.”