Observing Orange Shirt Day
We marked Orange Shirt Day in our worship service on September 29. Everyone was encouraged to wear an orange shirt to remember and honour all the Indigenous children who went to Residential School and those children who died there.
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. Its slogan, “Every Child Matters”, recognizes that all children are important, including the ones who died at residential schools and adults who are still healing from the trauma they endured. The orange shirt is a symbol of the stripping away of culture, freedom and self-esteem experienced by Indigenous children over generations.
Orange Shirt Day began following a commemorative event in Williams Lake, BC in 2013. One of the speakers, Phyllis Webstad, a Northern Secwepemc (Shuswap) woman, recounted how she was living with her grandmother and in 1973, when she was six years old, her grandmother took her to buy a new outfit to start school. Phyllis chose a bright orange shirt which she proudly wore when she left for the Mission Residential School. Upon arrival, all the children had their clothing removed and replaced with a school uniform. Phyllis never saw her orange shirt again. At the Williams Lake event, she said, “I didn’t understand why they wouldn’t give it back to me, it was mine. The colour 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.”
Following that event and Phyllis’ speech, the orange shirt was adopted as a symbol of remembrance, teaching and healing and Orange Shirt Day is now observed across Canada on September 30 which was the time when Indigenous children were taken from their homes and sent to Residential Schools. The CN Tower will be lit orange on September 30 in honour of Orange Shirt Day.
September 30 was also declared by the federal parliament as the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation in response to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s Call for Action #80 which sought a federal statutory day of commemoration. This day was first observed in 2021 following the discovery of unmarked burial sites at the former Kamloops Indian Residential School in BC.
You can listen to the Right Rev. Dr. Carmen Lansdowne’s Orange Shirt message to learn about the United Church’s role in operating residential schools and actions towards reconciliation.
Other resources:
Reconciliation and Indigenous Justice | The United Church of Canada
Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada (rcaanc-cirnac.gc.ca)
Also, please check out the Indigenous book cart during coffee hour where there are lots of related books for children and adults.
- Runnymede United Church Affirm Committee