Let’s wear orange to show our commitment to truth-telling and reconciliation with Indigenous people.
Orange Shirt Day, September 30th, is an Indigenous-led movement that seeks to honour and remember the children who were lost to the residential school system, its survivors, and their families and communities. Starting in the 1880s, government-funded residential schools were created to assimilate Indigenous children into the Euro-Canadian society under the guise of education. Children were taken from their homes, forced to attend the said residential schools. There, the children experienced physical and mental abuse. They were isolated from their families and communities, and their Indigenous identities were stripped from them.
Orange Shirt Day seeks to open dialogue and build awareness about the plight of the residential school survivors and victims. It’s about remembering what happened, honoring and acknowledging their experiences, and witnessing their healing journey.