A group of students in Whitehorse have created their own orange T-shirts as a fundraiser for the Yukon-based Committee on Abuse in Residential Schools. Grade 10 students in the Fashion Art Design School program at Whitehorse's Porter Creek Secondary School released their new Orange Shirt Day T-shirts on Monday, and they're available for sale at Sports Experts. "This is a really good way to just learn how to give back to the community that they live in, and plus the whole process of working in the fashion industry as well," said teacher and program organizer, Kyla Greve.
"I hope that they [students] take away that they can use their art to support the community, or use their skills just to help." Tahltan First Nation student Harlan Koisan was one of two Indigenous students in the program responsible for designing a graphic to be printed on the shirts. "I had a great experience making these designs.
It was a way of going back to my cultural background and paying thanks and being thankful for them," he said. Koisan, 17, said in making his design he wanted to acknowledge the significance that salmon have in First Nations culture. Harlan Koisan, 17, is a Grade 10 student at Porter Creek Secondary School in Whitehorse.
He is 1 of 2 First Nations students in the program to design the orange shirts. (Camilla Faragalli ) "The salmon have provided food and a way of living from harvesting them through multiple generations," he said. He explained that his design represents the life cycle.