National Day for Truth and Reconciliation
Indigenous student artist explores remembrance through design
September 16, 2026
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This year’s National Day for Truth and Reconciliation observances at Queen’s focus on community and relationship building.
Mazinibii’ige (Kaiya Mongrain) smiles when she envisions an audience observing her artwork. The idea of viewers whisking away on their own creative journey while exploring her art draws a connection between the Queen’s student and spectators.
Mongrain created the artwork that will appear on orange T-shirts for the university’s 2026 National Day for Truth and Reconciliation activities. Her design, Rooted Remembrance, was selected after the university’s National Day for Truth and Reconciliation Working Group invited local Indigenous artists to submit original work.
Rooted Remembrance incorporates cherished aspects of Indigenous culture. At the bottom of the design, hands hold a smudge bowl, representing cleansing and good thoughts. Smoke rises from the bowl to form the outline of a tree, symbolizing growth. Handprints of various sizes within the tree represent survivors and victims of Canada’s residential school system. An image of a mother holding a child conveys the harm caused by the system’s separation of children from their parents. A circle representing the medicine wheel and the cycle of life expresses how everyone is interconnected.
“The fun in it is once I put a piece into the world and it's public, people can see it and view it,” says Mongrain, who began drawing in middle school. “It changes in a way that is beyond me, because it becomes something different for somebody else. No one's going to look at my art the same way and I think that's the beauty of it.”
Mongrain, who grew up on Mko Mnising, or Bear Island, in the heart of Teme-Augama Anishnabai, or Lake Temagami, allows the influence of the land and the relationships she observes within it to shape her art.
“When we observe things through nature, we see those relationships between other beings and ourselves,” she says. “I think it can play a good part in practicing gratitude and recognizing and appreciating those smaller things.”
Queen's student Mazinibii’ige (Kaiya Mongrain) created the artwork that will appear on orange T-shirts for the university’s 2026 National Day for Truth and Reconciliation activities.
Mongrain completed her Bachelor of Education through the Indigenous Teacher Education Program (ITEP) at Queen’s and is now pursuing a Master of Science.
Mongrain completed her Bachelor of Education through the Indigenous Teacher Education Program (ITEP) at Queen’s this summer and is now pursuing a Master of Science in Biology. Her detailed drawings reflect her love of reading, scene-setting, and storytelling. She often gathers ideas while spending time outside, capturing them in photographs or holding them in her memory until they find their way into her work.
Her father, who is also an artist, has often given her some helpful guidance about that process.
“He says you have to be patient sometimes. The idea is: marinate,” Mongrain says. “Then you go back, and then it’s another burst of, ‘Oh, I got it. I get what I’m trying to capture.’”
This year’s National Day for Truth and Reconciliation observances at Queen’s focus on community and relationship building. Established by the federal government in 2021, the day recognizes the history and ongoing effects of the residential school system. It builds on Orange Shirt Day, a grassroots movement that began in British Columbia in 2013.
Orange T-shirt sales and events
T-shirts featuring Mongrain’s Rooted Remembrance design will be sold on a sliding scale of $10 to $20 in the Queen’s Centre Atrium from noon to 3 pm on Sept. 22, 23, 24, and 29. A pay-it-forward option will allow buyers to purchase a shirt for someone else.
On Sept. 30, the T-shirts will be sold at Agnes Benidickson Field from 11 am to 12:30 pm, before the Sacred Fire begins at 1 p.m. A portion of T-shirt sales will support the First Nations Child and Family Caring Society. Community members may also donate personal hygiene products, socks, slippers, and related items for Tipi Moza.
Remarks from Principal Patrick Deane, AMS President Dreyden George, Vice-Provost (Student Affairs) Corinna Fitzgerald, and Associate Vice-Principal (Indigenous Initiatives) Lisa Maracle will begin at 1:15 pm.
Other activities honouring the day are taking place throughout the month, including the Fifth Annual Indigenous Art Exhibition. Community members can find the full schedule through the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation section of the Office of Indigenous Initiatives website.
