New hockey sticks aim to spark conversation about Every Child Matters movement in Canada

Thousands of new orange and black Every Child Matters hockey sticks now on shelves of sporting goods stores across Canada are meant to do more than just send pucks into nets.

Clay DeBray designed the sticks to spread awareness about what happened to generations of Indigenous children who were forced into Canada's residential school institutional system.

"My oldest son is a junior hockey player and I want him to have a stick so his teammate sitting right next to him can look at that stick and ask the questions about what that stick is about," said DeBray, a Métis man originally from Duck Lake who is now manager of the Snipe and Celly Sports Excellence retail outlet on Flying Dust First Nation in northwest Saskatchewan.

"My son will be able to tell the story. He'll be able to explain the symbols and use it as a conversation piece."

DeBray said the sticks' colours were not chosen randomly. He said more people are starting to associate the orange and black colour scheme with the movement to teach what happened at residential school institutions.

"That's what the orange coming out of the black represents."

The stick features five symbols on the shaft of the stick — an orange teddy bear, an orange teardrop, four shades of skin-toned hands, an Indigenous-drawn turtle with a medicine wheel graphic and a traditional Métis sash — and a sixth on the blade — an orange eagle feather.

"I want to make sure the eagle feather is put on the blade because when it's raised in the air in celebration after a goal, it's the closest to our creator," DeBray said. 

DeBray worked with Muskeg Lake Cree Nation Elder Eugene Arcand throughout the design process. Arcand attended the St. Michael's Residential School institution in Duck Lake and the Lebret Indian Residential School institution during the 1950s and 1960s. 

Arcand said Canada needs to do a better job completing the Truth and Reconciliation Commission's 94 Calls to Action. He said that it will be impossible to reconcile before people get a thorough understanding of the truth of what happened at Canadian residential school institutions.

He said he hopes the sticks and other future sporting initiatives can help spread that "much-needed" public education.

DeBray graduated from St. Michael's in the 1990s. He said he is grateful he doesn't face the same traumas as generations before him, but still wants to do his part to spread awareness.

He has previously sold orange T-Shirts, but said he didn't see them worn on many days other than Sept. 30, the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation.

That's why he turned to hockey, a passion he shares with people of all backgrounds across Canada. He said he thinks the sticks can keep the topic at the forefront all year.