Orange Shirt Day – September 29, 2017
On Friday September 29, students and staff across the TDSB will come together and wear Orange Shirts to recognize the harm that the Residential School System did to First Nations, Métis and Inuit children and to recognize that "Every Child Matters."
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Orange shirt day is a movement that officially began in 2013 but in reality it began in 1973 when six-year-old Phyllis Webstad entered the St. Joseph Mission Residential School, outside of Williams Lake, BC. The date, September 30, was chosen because that was the time of the year the trucks and buses would enter the communities to “collect” the children and deliver them to their harsh new reality of cultural assimilation, mental, sexual and physical abuse, shame and deprivation. The impact of residential schools affects every Canadian. (Bob Joseph, Working Effectively with Indigenous Peoples, 2015)
Honouring this day shows our commitment of Reconciliation.
In First Nations, Métis, and Inuit communities today, youth, parents and co-workers have either attended a Residential School or are inter-generationally affected by this attempt at cultural genocide.
This is an opportunity for educators to enrich teaching in learning environments by engaging in critical conversations and to share why and how Orange Shirt Day came about.
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