Sale!

Keepin’ It Riel
(Classic Edition)

$12.00 CAD$28.00 CAD

Hey…Where are all the shirts??

We sold them all!

Are you planning to make any more?
Not right now, sorry.

BUT!
Try out these places, they might have some in stock.

Manitoba Museum (Gift Shop)
190 Rupert Ave. (204)988-0615

La Musée de St. Boniface (Gift Shop)
494 Taché Avenue. (204)237-4500

Lower Fort Garry (Gift Shop)
5925 Hwy 9, St. Andrews. (204)785-8577


We’re thrilled to team with graphic designer Brendon Ehinger, owner/operator of Ehinger Creative and KeepinitRiel.ca to bring you the Original Riel Tee, available online exclusively at waybackwinnipeg.com.

Unisex, women’s and youth sizes available — fun for the whole family!

We’re also excited to announce $2 from each item purchased will go to Art City – a non-profit studio that provides people of all ages with free arts programming.

As Louis Riel said: “My people will sleep for 100 years, and when they awake, it will be the artists who give them back their spirit.”

Produced in Winnipeg

For orders outside Canada or large orders, please contact us for shipping prices.


READ THIS:
Orders ship on the first Friday of each month


SKU: riel Categories: , ,

The story of Keepin’ it Riel

Original Riel Tee designer Brendon Ehinger

Brendon Ehinger knew he had something special when he wore his creation around Winnipeg nearly 15 years ago.

It wasn’t every day the leader of the Red River and North-West Resistances, Louis Riel, was seen on a T-shirt.

“I made one shirt and wore it around the Fringe Festival grounds that summer and came home with about a dozen phone numbers of random people who wanted me to make them a shirt,” Ehinger says.

The classic slogan “Keepin’ it Riel,” was added under Riel’s mug a short time later, after Ehinger’s friend Lee White (of improv group CRUMBS) made the suggestion.

Studio portrait of Louis Riel seated at desk circa 1873
(Library and Archives Canada)

“I immediately latched on to that and he gave me his blessing to use it for the shirt,” Ehinger says. “The rest is history, so they say.”

The idea came about after Ehinger decided he wanted a shirt like the Che Guevara ones that were popping up everywhere — but there had to be a local twist. The idea to immortalize Riel came from exploring his Métis roots. Ehinger says he always knew he had Indigenous blood but it was something his family rarely spoke about.

Ehinger’s introduction to Riel was through Chester Brown’s award-winning graphic novel, Louis Riel: A Comic-Strip Biography. The story traces the life of the founder of Manitoba — from the time Rupert’s Land was sold to the Canadian government in 1869, to the subsequent Métis uprising, to Riel’s surrender to the North-West Mounted Police. He was then tried in Regina on charges of treason.

During a speech made to jurors before their deliberations on July 31, 1885, Riel spoke about his legacy and dream for the future:

A photograph of Louis Riel, taken circa 1870. This black-and-white carte-de-visite was made by I. Bennetto & Co. of Winnipeg.(University of Manitoba Archives)

“I am glad that the Crown have proved that I am the leader of the half-breeds in the North-West. I will perhaps be one day acknowledged as more than a leader of the half-breeds, and if I am, I will have an opportunity of being acknowledged as a leader of good in this great country.”

Riel was found guilty of treason. Judge Hugh Richardson, despite pleas from the six-man jury for leniency, sentenced him to death. Riel was hanged in Regina on Nov. 16, 1885.

Ehinger says he began identifying as Métis around the time he made the first Riel shirts in 2005. He initiated research on his family history, “starting with awkward conversations with my grandparents.”

It wasn’t until 2013 that Ehinger got some real answers. Armed with names, and birth and death dates of his great grandparents, he sought the help of the St. Boniface Centre du patrimoine.

“The search came back to me with affidavits on my grandmother’s side going back a few generations,” Ehinger says. “Charles Bottineau, a trapper, married a Chippewa woman named Techomehgood — my great great great grandmother.”

After Ehinger came home with a dozen pieces of paper in his pocket from people wanting a Riel shirt, he had a feeling he might be on to something. At first, it was his peers who were most interested — people in the music and arts communities.

“But as word got out, it became pretty much everyone — not just Métis, not just young people, not just musicians. Kind of anybody and everybody. People love Louis.”

In the fall of 2007, the provincial government announced a new February holiday would be named in honour of the Métis leader.

Riel’s cabinet, circa 1869.
(Front row, from left): Robert O’Lone, Paul Proulx. (Centre row, from left): Pierre Poitras, John Bruce, Louis Riel, John O’Donoghue, Francois Dauphinais. (Back row, from left): Bonnet Tromage, Pierre de Lorme, Thomas Bunn, Xavier Page, Baptiste Beauchemin, Baptiste Tournond, Joseph (Thomas?) Spence.
(Source: Library and Archives Canada / PA-012854)

“I had already been making the shirt for three years, and some people have suggested that my shirt may have been partially responsible for the surge in public interest leading to the holiday designation,” says Ehinger.

Besides selling to Winnipeggers, the Original Riel Tee has shipped to every province and territory in Canada. There have also been sales to the U.S. and the odd one makes it off the continent.

As for Ehinger’s thoughts on the controversial leader who’d become a part of his life:

“I think he is more of a hero than a traitor. I also think he may have been a bit crazy. I guess you’d have to be to lead a rebellion though, no?”

Keepin' it Riel Sizing Info

Youth

Womens

Unisex

This will close in 0 seconds

Premium Shirt Sizing Info

This will close in 0 seconds

Keepin' It Riel Sizes (Limited 2012 Reissue)


This will close in 0 seconds

Movie Village and Music Trader Sizes


This will close in 0 seconds