Orange shirts, hoodie stolen from Every Child Matters display outside The Healing of the Seven Generations

An orange hoodie has been stolen from the Every Child Matters display outside The Healing of the Seven Generations on Frederick Street. 

The Indigenous organization's Executive Director, Donna Dubie, said two shirts were also stolen in separate incidents last week. Before this year, this had never happened before.

“This is the very first time. We've had a red dress display out for Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls … and nothing happened out there,” said Dubie. “We just had our orange shirts out for just a week — and now this has happened, the very first time in the years we've been here.”

This comes after staff artwork was recently stolen to try and profit off the centre's new orange shirts design. 

“It wasn't even on our website for 24 hours, and a hacker took our design and decided to sell their own shirts. Clearly, they didn't have shirts and were scamming people's money.”

Dubie said once they started investigating the fraudulent site and posted about it on social media, it was taken down shortly after. 

“They ended up taking it down. But people have to understand what it is that they are doing. It's very disrespectful and it's just hateful. I can't understand how hateful people can be.”

Proceeds from The Healing of the Seven Generation's orange shirts help support local Indigenous initiatives, and Dubie encouraged residents who want to support the campaign to only make purchases through the organization's official website. 

She added they've had conversations with police about the recent incidents, although they haven't been formally reported. 

“There really isn't much that they can do,” said Dubie. 

She said she's just hoping to raise awareness about what's been happening. 

“It creates harm in our community when something like this happens. It's trying to bring awareness to people, and they have a total disregard for what the representation of the orange shirt is,” explained Dubie. “If people can be respectful and if anybody sees anything happening at the centre, if they could please report it; I would be very honoured if they could do that.”

Dubie said last year, The Healing of the Seven Generations was able to donate $83,735 to the Save the Evidence campaign at the Mohawk Institute, a former residential school. 

The Healing of the Seven Generations also held its first walk for National Day for Truth and Reconciliation in 2021 and plans to do so again this year. 

“We will be having another walk on September 30, again leaving from 300 Frederick Street and going down to Victoria Park.”

The Queen Victoria statue in Victoria Park has been a contentious topic in Kitchener following a series of vandalism incidents that saw it splattered with red paint, as well as calls from some to remove the statue from the park as the city pursues public education and consultation processes.

“We're still considered the 'Queen's children' … I think it needs to be taken down. They were a big part of residential schools, they knew what was going on. There's a time and a place for the statue — not to lose that history, but to keep it and put it in a place that's not right out in the open in everybody's face.”

You can visit The Healing of the Seven Generation's official online store by clicking here.