‘It’s my responsibility as a business owner’: A Winnipeg tea room aims to take part in Truth and Reconciliation

Orange Shirt Day is drawing near, which means many Manitoba businesses are gearing up to commemorate the day — including a business in Winnipeg, whose owner comes from Scotland.

He says he’s realized how important Truth and Reconciliation is since moving to Canada.

“It’s not a choice,” explained Mark Turner, who owns of Amsterdam Tea Room & Bar. “It’s just my responsibility to do that as a business owner and a human being.”

“As a recent settler, like a white, European settler and a steward of a business that is on Treaty 1 territory, I feel like I could do more,” said Turner. “My staff also echoed that sentiment. They were like, ‘We could do more. What can we do?”

In his ongoing journey to learn about Canada’s history, Turner says he wanted to work in collaboration with people in the community, towards Truth and Reconciliation.

He turned to friends for help.

“They gave me some good advice,” he explained. “It was during that period, we were doing some Instagram work and Christine’s pins popped up on our feed.”

“Our collaboration, in my mind, is reconciliation coming to life,” said Christine Brouzes, a Métis artist and advocate in Winnipeg.

Through Brouzes’ handmade pins, she’s working to share the story of Indigenous people in Canada. Among Orange Shirt pins, Brouzes has also created pins representing Métis, First Nations and Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women, Girls and Two-Spirit people.

Brouzes says she wasn’t surprised when Turner reached out with the curiosity for learning — but she was surprised at the lengths he wanted to go to engage with Indigenous history and Orange Shirt Day. Together they embarked on a partnership that sees Brouzes’ pins represented at Amsterdam Tea Room in an effort to connect with others and give proceeds back to the community.

“I love the idea that somebody is wearing a tiny Orange Shirt pin, and somebody else will say to them, what is that all about?” said Brouzes. “It’s a comfortable way of asking a question and starting a conversation.”

“My staff always have one of her pins on now,” added Turner. “Especially in September, they wear their Orange Shirt pin and it gives them opportunity to have conversations with customers as well.”

The pins are handmade by Brouzes out of solid polymer clay.

Brouzes, a multidisciplinary artist with a background in beadwork, describes the process like cutting a sugar cookie log — she molds the shape into a cylinder and cuts them up and bakes the clay.

“Pins were a wonderful evolution for me because I used to do a lot of beading of medallions,” she explained. “Which also convey important messages but take a great amount of time, and I love to do that, but I wanted this message to spread.”

Each pin is attached to a card that gives a little bit of information to why the pin is significant. In the case of her Orange Shirt Day pins, she makes it clear the shirt is a symbol is to honour Residential School Survivors and those who didn’t make it home.

“(Pins are) a gender-inclusive item that anyone can wear on anything,” Brouzes said.

“Reconciliation means a lot of things to a lot of people. That’s the beauty of this time of year,” she said. “Orange Shirt Day, or Truth and Reconciliation Day, it gives us each time to reflect what it means to us.”

For the fourth year in a row, Amsterdam Tea Room will be closing its doors on Sept. 30th.

“There is a responsibility to acknowledge and to be part of the reconciliation,” said Turner. “Just like with my story and Christine’s. Christine is the truth — and what I’m doing is the best I can to recognize and be part of that reconciliation.”

“While we can’t change history,” said Turner. “We can certainly acknowledge it. Talk about it and recognize what actually happened.”