Orange Shirt Day.

Today across Canada, we observed and honored

our Indigenous Community by wearing orange

shirts. Orange Shirt Day was started in 2013 by

residential school survivor Phyllis Webstad, who

went to a residential school in Williams Lake, B.C.

This day is named after she wore an orange shirt

to her first day of school as a 6 year old. Phyllis

arrived wearing a new orange shirt her grandma

had bought for her but the school staff stripped it

from her. This has become a symbol of all the

children who were stripped of their Indigenous

rights when they were taken from their homes and

brought to residential schools by the government.

The even takes place on September 30th every

year because it's the day that so many Indigenous

children were forced to leave their homes. People

wear orange shirts to honour Phyllis and to create

awareness around what residential schools did to

our Indigenous Community. For us, as a family

and as a school, we are honored to all participate.

~ Chy