Orange Shirt Day
By Mariah Humphries
September 30 is Orange Shirt Day and National Day for Truth and Reconciliation.
Today, many Indigenous of Canada and the US are survivors, the children and grandchildren of those who had to attend boarding schools. What we’ve known for decades is just beginning to be publicly acknowledged by our countries and church leaders.
For us to be people of faith who are called together to be instruments of truth, justice, mercy, and reconciliation grounded in charity, we must be willing to listen and learn from the present as well as the past. From 1867 to 1996, there were 140 federally run residential schools in Canada. The abuse was vast, religion forced and assimilation was required.
National Day for Truth and Reconciliation is an official day, in Canada, to remember First Nations, Métis and Inuit Peoples, who experienced the boarding school system in Canada.
Orange Shirt Day is an “Indigenous-led grassroots commemorative day intended to raise awareness of the individual, family and community inter-generational impacts of residential schools, and to promote the concept of “Every Child Matters”. The orange shirt is a symbol of the stripping away of culture, freedom and self-esteem experienced by Indigenous children over generations.” (www.canada.ca)
Why orange? Phyllis (Jack) Webstad entered a school at the age of 6, wearing an orange shirt. When she entered she was stripped of her clothing and never saw her personal items again. Orange became a color that symbolized the loss of so much culture and dignity from these assimilation schools.
I went to the Mission for one school year in 1973/1974. I had just turned 6 years old. I lived with my grandmother on the Dog Creek reserve. We never had very much money, but somehow my granny managed to buy me a new outfit to go to the Mission school. I remember going to Robinson’s store and picking out a shiny orange shirt. It had string laced up in front, and was so bright and exciting – just like I felt to be going to school!
When I got to the Mission, they stripped me, and took away my clothes, including the orange shirt! I never wore it again. I didn’t understand why they wouldn’t give it back to me, it was mine! 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.
Phyllis (Jack) Webstad
Canada’s leadership has taken steps to acknowledge this atrocity by creating the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC). This commission is focused on acknowledgment and working with leaders to take steps toward healing . “The TRC created a historical record of the residential schools system. The Government of Canada continues to be committed to a renewed nation-to-nation relationship with Indigenous Peoples based on recognition of rights, respect, co-operation and partnership. The Government of Canada will work closely with provinces, territories, First Nations, the Métis Nation, Inuit groups and church entities to implement recommendations of the TRC and further reconciliation to the benefit of all Canadians. This will include the implementation of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.”
The treatment of children in Indian Residential Schools is a sad chapter in our history.
For more than a century, Indian Residential Schools separated over 150,000 Aboriginal children from their families and communities. In the 1870’s, the federal government, partly in order to meet its obligation to educate Aboriginal children, began to play a role in the development and administration of these schools. Two primary objectives of the Residential Schools system were to remove and isolate children from the influence of their homes, families, traditions and cultures, and to assimilate them into the dominant culture. These objectives were based on the assumption Aboriginal cultures and spiritual beliefs were inferior and unequal. Indeed, some sought, as it was infamously said, “to kill the Indian in the child”. Today, we recognize that this policy of assimilation was wrong, has caused great harm, and has no place in our country.
The government now recognizes that the consequences of the Indian Residential Schools policy were profoundly negative and that this policy has had a lasting and damaging impact on Aboriginal culture, heritage and language.
— Prime Minister Harper.
You can read his full statement, here.
September 30 and everyday, we lament the trauma caused by this system of government and by church leaders, and we focus on the resilience of Indigenous children to endure.
You can read more about Orange Shirt Day, here:
- https://orangeshirtday.org/
- https://www.canada.ca/en/canadian-heritage/campaigns/national-day-truth-reconciliation.html
