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Orange Shirt Day: A day to remember and reflect on the affects of Residential Schools in Canada Kelly Running Observer Staff
People across Canada participated in The Orange Shirt Campaign – Every Child Matters, on Friday, Sept. 30. The day developed as a way to recognize and remember the experiences of Residential School survivors and honours the commitment to reconciliation needed. Beginning in the mid-1800s and continuing until the late 1990s First Nations children were taken from their communities and placed in Residential Schools. They were run by religious orders in conjunction with the federal government. Children as young as four-years-old were simply taken to attend school. Scared and alone they were prohibited from speaking their language or practicing their culture. A small but significant act included the cutting of the students’ hair. It had been that long hair was a source of pride, it was only cut if a loved one had passed away, but at school it was simply taken and they mourned for their own lives. Over 150,000 children were forced into attending these schools and experienced sexual, mental, and physical abuse. The affects of these experiences endured and still linger in First Nations communities. Although assimilation was attempted, it was never fully achieved, and there has now been an effort to revive languages and cultural practices amongst First Nation peoples. The campaign originated in British Columbia three years ago, but has now spread to other provinces and territories. Why an orange shirt? For Phyllis (Jack) Webstad it was a memory from her first day of school at Williams Lake Residential School in B.C. in 1973. She had been living with her grandmother on the Dog Creek reserve, had just turned six-years-old, and was allowed to pick out a new outfit to go to school in. Her family never had much money, but she remembers the orange shirt perfectly: “It had string laced up in front, and was so bright and exciting – just like I felt to be going to school!” – she writes on the Orange Shirt Day website. When Webstad arrived at the school her clothes were taken, including that orange shirt. She couldn’t understand how they could simply take it away from her and the colour, throughout her life, then reminded her feeling like she was worthless: “All of us little children were crying and no one cared,” she continues in her story. Her experiences were carried with her and it wasn’t until she was 27-years-old that she sought to embark on a healing journey. She writes, “I finally get it, that the feeling of worthlessness and insignificance, ingrained in me from my first day at the mission, affected the way I lived my life for many years.
See Orange Shirt Day on page 2
Staff photo by Kelly Running
Bringing awareness to the atrocities of Residential Schools in Canada, White Bear Education Complex dressed in orange and walked to the Resort Office and back.
Staff photo by Kelly Running
Leslie, a student at White Bear Education Complex, sang and drummed during the walk as a celebration of their culture enduring the attempted assimilation by the Government of Canada from the mid-1800s to the 1990s.