Reconciliation Action Partnership unveils Maddie Bernard-Resmer’s Artwork for Every Child Matters wrap

Today, the Reconciliation Action Partnership and Maddie Bernard-Resmer unveiled the new Every Child Matters bus wrap and ambulance wrap, in recognition of the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation and Indigenous History Month. The day honours the children who never returned home and Survivors of residential schools, as well as their families and communities. ​

The Reconciliation Action Partnership is a collaborative group of municipal representatives working together to support Indigenous-centred initiatives across Waterloo Region. Its focus is on improving service delivery for Indigenous Peoples, building respectful relationships with Indigenous communities, meaningfully supporting Indigenous-led work, and fostering more inclusive communities and municipal workplaces.

Each year, a local Indigenous artist’s design is chosen by the community, providing opportunities for public education, understanding and connection. This year, artist Maddie Bernard-Resmer was selected. A description of the artwork and what it means follows:

“The piece I created for this year’s Every Child Matters bus and ambulance wraps is titled Kiiwe—“They are returning home.” It speaks to what so many children of the residential school system were denied, and what so many of us hold as ordinary: the ability to come home.

Home can be a house, a stretch of land, or a country of origin. It can also be family gathered around a table, the sound of a first language, the taste of traditional food, the comfort of ceremony. For Indigenous children forced into residential schools, both the place and the feeling of home were stolen. Many escaped to find their own ways back, but their steps were intercepted—by Indian agents, by police, by hunger, by exhaustion. Too often, the journey proved impossible.

The monarch butterfly, with its long and perilous migration, carries the spirit of Indigenous children who fled or survived, and of those whose journeys home—in body, in spirit, in memory—are still unfolding.

Subtly woven into the orange field of the bus is a textile pattern: a three-strand braid, a Haudenosaunee skydome, a Mi’kmaq double-curve, a Pacific Northwest Coast Salish flat design, and a Woodland Cree/Anishinaabe floral. These motifs speak together as one fabric—symbols of the collective strength and vast diversity of Indigenous nations across Turtle Island, and within this region.

The children featured in the design represent three generations: one who lived before colonization, one who endured the time of the residential school system, and one who walks in the present day. Together, they remind us that our stories stretch far beyond a single moment in time. As Anishinaabe, we understand ourselves through anikoobijigan—our sacred connection to those who came before us, and to those who are yet to come. This design carries that teaching forward: that we are never alone, but always held within the circle of past, present, and future.

In this way, the bus becomes more than transportation. It becomes a messenger, carrying stories of families reunited, languages re-learned, ceremonies reborn. It honours the children still being brought back to their resting places, while giving hope to the generations finding their way home to culture, community, and self. For some, the journey home is long and stretches across generations—but there will always be a light in the window, waiting to guide us back.

As is the case with every design I create, this work is done in memory of Nimama in the spirit world, my Mother, Gibwe Mikinaak Kwe. I would like to dedicate this project with reverence to my Great Grandfather Archie Bernard, who attended Golden Lake Indian Day School, as well as my cousins: Philippe, Margaret, Charline, Cecile, and Liza Commandant who attended Residential School in Spanish, Ontario, as well as Susan Commandant, their sister, who died at Spanish Girls Residential School at the age of two and a half.

Lastly, as we reflect on what it means to carry these stories forward, we must also recognize the challenges of this moment. Reconciliation cannot exist without truth, and truth asks us to face what is uncomfortable. It asks us to be vigilant in ensuring that the voices of survivors and communities are not overshadowed by the presence of institutions that have caused harm. We are walking a delicate balance - the weight of history and the hope of change. However, It is only by honouring truth first that reconciliation can ever hope to root. Mìgwech.“

This work is featured on a Grand River Transit (GRT) bus and four Paramedic Services ambulances, which can be seen across the community in the coming weeks.