Today is Orange Shirt Day, also known as the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation or National Day of Remembrance. Orange Shirt Day has been widely observed across Canada since 2013 to raise awareness about the residential school system and its impact on Indigenous communities for over a century.
Orange Shirt Day originates from the story of Phyllis Webstad from the Stswecem’c Xgat’tem First Nation. It grew out of Phyllis’s account of losing her shiny new orange shirt on her first day of school at the St. Joseph Mission, and it has become an opportunity to keep the discussion on all aspects of residential schools happening annually.” (Orange Shirt Day)
This day of remembrance is now commonly observed in the United States as well in remembrance of survivors of the boarding school system that also took place as a means of erasure and assimilation tactics against Indigenous Peoples in the country. “Orange Shirt Day is a legacy of the St. Joseph Mission residential school commemoration event held in Williams Lake in the spring of 2013.
