Orange Shirt Day 2020
Today is Orange Shirt Day across Canada – a day for awareness and support for the survivors and families of Canada’s Residential School System. We acknowledge the harmful past and present consequences of our residential schools.
Orange Shirt Day is inspired by the story of Phyllis Webstad, a First Nation Elder in Williams Lake, B.C. It was this time of year – the end of September – when Indigenous children were removed from their homes to attend residential schools.
At the young age of 6, the brand-new orange shirt that Phyllis wore was replaced with a uniform on her first day at St. Joseph Mission Residential School, outside of Williams Lake, B.C. in 1973. The orange shirt that we wear today symbolizes all that Phyllis was stripped of and the emotional trauma that followed her in the Residential School System.
For Phyliss, the colour orange always reminded her of her experience at residential school and she said: “how my feelings didn’t matter, how no one cared and I felt like I was worth nothing. All of us little children were crying and no one cared.”
The last residential school in Canada closed in 1996, less than 15 years ago.
· It is estimated that 6,000 children died due to Canada’s residential school system
· 150,000 children attended these schools over 160 years
· More than 80,000 survivors and their families still live with its legacy
The Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada’s work, concluding with the 94 Calls to Action in 2015, was when this horrifying part of Canada’s past came to the forefront of the minds of Canadians and was acknowledged as a cultural genocide.
Although there were no residential schools in Waterloo Region, we recognize there are residential school survivors and family members in our community who carry the intergenerational trauma of the past. May we remember them every day so we can move forward toward reconciliation.
The way we see our country and plan for our community as municipal leaders should be informed by our past. Today, we honour the survivors and families of our Residential School System. May we remember them each and every day as we walk together toward reconciliation.
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