Orange Shirt Day to Honour Indian Residential School Survivors

The City of Saskatoon in partnership with Reconciliation Saskatoon is proud to support Orange Shirt Day activities on September 30, 2017. The day aims to raise awareness of the devastating impact of the Indian residential school system on Aboriginal people and our community.

“As an Indian residential school survivor, we were taught to love God but we were also taught how to hate ourselves as native people,” says Elder and residential school survivor Frank Badger. “I still experience feelings of inadequacy and a lack of confidence due to the physical and emotional abuse I received at the school. No kids should experience what I did; we must love our kids and look after them no matter what background they have because every child matters.”

Orange Shirt Day has been gaining momentum since 2013 and was officially recognized last year by the Saskatchewan School Boards Association. Schools across Saskatoon will participate by running educational activities in the weeks leading up to September 30.

From the 1880s until 1996 when the last school closed, 150,000 First Nation, Inuit and Métis children were removed from their communities and forced to attend residential schools across Canada.

“I am inspired by Elders like Rose Atimoyoo who said, ‘The bringing up of a child can be likened to braiding a willow. It will grow as you braid it. So it is with a child – what he is taught and what is done with him as a child is how he will grow up, just like the braided willow,’” says Harry Lafond, Executive Director, Office of the Treaty Commissioner and residential school survivor. “Orange Shirt Day reminds us that love breeds love and pain breeds pain. What do we want for our grandchildren?”

All members of the community are encouraged to get involved by wearing an orange T-shirt or clothing item on September 30 and attend the Community Pancake Breakfast planned to honour residential school survivors.

“Orange Shirt Day is an important day for all members of the community to unite in a spirit of reconciliation and honour residential school survivors, their descendants and the children who were lost,” says Shirley Isbister, President of Central Urban Metis Federation Inc. “The impact of residential schools goes far beyond the children who experienced it firsthand. Even today, five generations later, my family feels the effects resulting from decades of cultural loss and intergenerational trauma inflicted on families.”

The day grew out of the story of six-year old Phyllis Webstad who wore an orange shirt on her first day of residential school. It was forcefully removed from her and her story is now a powerful reminder of the inter-generational trauma that has resulted from decades of cultural loss.

Reconciliation Saskatoon is a 58-member initiative of community organizations, non-profit organizations, businesses and partners who have come together with a singular mission: to initiate a citywide conversation about reconciliation and provide opportunities for everyone to engage in the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada’s (TRC) Calls to Action.

For more information, visit saskatoon.ca/reconciliation, www.OTC.ca or phone the Office of the Treaty Commissioner at 306-244-2100.

The City of Saskatoon’s commitment to the TRC’s Calls to Action supports the City’s Corporate Strategic Goal of Quality of Life by identifying actions for enhancing Aboriginal well-being and participation in our community.

This initiative is made possible by the Community Fund for Canada’s 150th, a collaboration between Potash Corporation, Saskatoon Community Foundation, the Government of Canada, and extraordinary leaders from coast to coast to coast.