Curtis Wilson of the Wewekum First Nation designed the Gelgipola flag in 2005 to represent Indigenous peoples across Canada. Salmon symbolize family and resilience, an orca inside the maple leaf represents protection and unity. After Wilson's death in 2021, the flag gained visibility during National Indigenous Peoples Day and following revelations of unmarked residential-school graves.
Chapters
This is the story of a flag. Not the maple leaf, not the provincial ones. It's not a flag you salute. It's a flag you reckon with. It was created by a man named Curtis Wilson, an artist from the Wewekum First Nation on Vancouver Island. He wasn't commissioned by like a government agency or a branding firm or anything. He sat at his kitchen table in 2005 and he began sketching out an idea for a flag because he felt that something was missing in this country. There was no flag, or no national flag, that represented Indigenous peoples across the country. No symbol flying at city halls or outside schools that said, "We belong here too." So he designed one. I meant to put it up on our house, but I've been sick the last couple of days. It's called Gelgipola. It means standing together in support of each other. It is, of course, based on the Canadian flag. As you can see, it has the same red bars on on either side of it, maple leaf in the middle. But Curtis reimagined some of those symbols through his own, his own cultural lens. On the sides there are salmon, which represent family and community and resilience. The maple leaf is still in there, but inside it swims an orca, because for many Indigenous nations, the orca is a protector, like a family leader, a symbol of unity. By placing it at the heart of the Canadian symbol, Curtis wasn't just decorating, he was saying something. Indigenous peoples are not outside the Canadian story, they are the heart of it. Curtis passed away, uh, just 6 years ago. He was only 39 years old, but his legacy lives on every time that flag is raised, and it's being raised more and more often. Today, this weekend, of course, it's National Indigenous People's Day around this time. Powwows, marches, memorials, classrooms, university lobbies. In 2021, when we all were reckoning with the unmarked graves at former residential schools, thousands of Canadians turned to that flag. Sales surged. People raised it on their homes and their businesses and on their boats, not because they were turning their back on Canada but because they wanted to believe that Canada could be better. The rights to the flag's design, incidentally, belong to Wilson's estate, and a portion of every flag sale supports his two children. There is only one authorized retailer of it, The Flag Shop. It's called the Canadian Indigenous Flag. It's not a replacement for the maple leaf. It doesn't try to fix everything. But hopefully it reminds people what still needs fixing.
