Orange Shirt Day has spread to schools all across Canada, including Sweetgrass School near Battleford, Saskatchewan. (OrangeShirtDay.org)
PORT ALBERNI, B.C.-Students across Canada took time in late September to learn about residential schools. In Port Alberni, B.C., on September 28, NEW (Nuu-chah-nulth Education Worker) Richard Samuel, organized activities for the third year to raise students' and staff awareness of the legacy of Canada's Indian residential schools. Each year he holds class discussions and students create a banner that is displayed in Port Alberni.
An article in Ha-Shilth-Sa, Canada's oldest First Nations' newspaper, teacher Seana Wright says she has been teaching First Nations history in her social studies classes for four years and has noticed that every year more kids become aware of the legacy of residential schools. Wright said it is important to know the history because it is about social responsibility, peace and making a difference.
Orange Shirt Day takes place on September 30 every year to educate and remember those who suffered under the realm of residential schools. When it falls on a weekend, as it did this year, students usually participate in programs during the school week.
Operated from the 1870s to 1996, Native children were sent to the residential schools for education and to assimilate them into "White" society and to "Educate the Indian out of the child."
In the process, many atrocities were committed against Indigenous children and their families that have left wounded people and wounded family legacies. In some cases, children were physically harmed or even killed at residential schools.
Orange Shirt Day began in Williams Lake, B.C., commemorating the St. Joseph Mission residential school. An orange shirt was chosen as the symbol of the movement from the story of Phyllis Webstad, whose brand new, favorite orange shirt, given to her by her grandmother, was taken from her on her first day at the residential school in 1973 when she was six years old, as a third-generation residential student. "I didn't understand why they wouldn't give it back to me, it was mine!" Webstad explains. "The color orange has always reminded me of that and how my feelings didn't matter, how no one cared and how I felt like I was worth nothing. All of us little children were crying and no one cared" (read Webstad's full story and find resources at orangeshirtday.org).
In Port Alberni, one of the things Richard Samuel does to educate children is to show a video clip of TRC (Truth and Reconciliation Commission) Commissioner Murray Sinclair who said First Nations people are often asked why they can't just get over it and move along. Sinclair points out that everyone remembers war vets, 9/11, and other events.
"[We don't forget] because it is important for us to remember; it is our history and we learn from it and we should never forget it," said Sinclair.
In a recent Assembly of First Nations, National Chief Perry Bellegarde explained Orange Shirt Day and said, "When we wear orange shirts on this day we are reminded of the many First Nations children who were taken away, and we are telling the world that every child matters. We can't change the past, but we can all be a part of changing the future."
