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Orange Shirt Day

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Lillian Berg Students Reflect On Orange Shirt Day

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Lillian Berg staff and students in Vermilion Bay recognized Orange Shirt Day by honouring residential school survivours and those who didn’t make it home, with a collaborative school project.

Students and staff were tasked with decorating a small tile with a design or words that honoured Indigenous peoples.

Many chose local Elders who are survivors, others chose children who didn’t survive the Mc Intosh school and some even chose to honour family members.

Listening and learning doesn’t stop with Orange Shirt Day, as Grade 7 student Hailey says it’s an important part of Canadian history that everyone should know.

“We all have to learn about everybody and to respect everybody, regardless of who they are and what their culture is.”

Another Grade 7 student at Lillian Berg, Olivia explains what the day means to her.

“To me, Orange Shirt Day means to learn about residential schools, but I also think it shows everyone should be respected even if they are different from you. To also learn from past mistakes and learning why it’s so important.”

Grade 7/8 teacher Shannon Elliot says they were inspired by the local Elders who shared their stories in a video made by Lloyd Napish.

All the tiles will be put together in one big collective piece to be displayed in the school where everyone can see.

This was just one of many KPDSB school Orange Shirt Day activities on Wednesday.

Check out their Facebook page to see more.

https://www.facebook.com/KPDSB/posts/4394071400663479?__tn__=-R

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Orange Shirt Day: Honour the Journey-Commit To Reconciliation

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People across Canada will be wearing orange Wednesday in support of residential school survivors.

This year’s theme of Tikinagan Child and Family Services’ campaign is Honour the Journey: Commit to Reconciliation.

Executive Director of Tikinagan, Thelma Morris explains what they strive to accomplish by promoting Orange Shirt Day every year.

“By wearing orange, people can stand together with Indigenous peoples and honour the journey of resilience our peoples have made. Without the strength, courage and hope of our peoples, agencies like ours would not exist. We are a community based child and family well-being agency rooted in and accountable to the First Nations communities we serve because of the visionaries who fought against adversity to retain our rights and culture as First Nations.”

September 30th has been declared as Orange Shirt Day, to acknowledge the effects of residential school and to support reconciliation with Indigenous peoples.

The date was chosen because it marks the time of year when children were taken from their homes to residential schools and presents an opportunity to set anti-racism and anti-bullying policies for the school year.

Morris says acknowledgments like this are a step towards healing, awareness and reconciliation.

“I think it’s important to recognize anti-racism and anti-bullying because as indigenous peoples that is part of our history. Indigenous peoples never had a choice if they could stay at home and keep their kids at home. So we want to encourage anti-bulling, including cyber-bullying because you see a lot of negative media around indigenous population-stereotyping. So we’re hoping that we can create awareness that we’re still on a healing journey.

Morris adds it’s important to continue the conversation about residential schools and it’s affect on Indigenous people to this day.

“We do need to honour every person’s story about residential schools and making sure we continue to be open and talk about the history and generational trauma that we still see within our people.”

Tikinagan encourages Northwestern Ontario and the 30 First Nations they serve to acknowledge Orange Shirt Day, take the day as an opportunity to listen to Indigenous peoples and move forward towards reconciliation.

You can read more about Orange Shirt Day here.

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Orange Shirt Day Recognized Today At Schools In KPDSB

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Schools across the region are observing Orange Shirt Day today.

September 30th is the day set aside every year to remember the history of residential schools but yesterday was a PD Day.

KPDSB Student Achievement Teacher Michelle Parrish says it gives both students and teachers an opportunity to learn and teach more about the topic as the teaching has also been happening last week at schools as well.

Schools are also taking part in various activities to recognize the day including land acknowledgements and visiting memorial sites for residential schools.

Students are also studying through a KAIROS Blanket Exercise which is a way of teaching the traditional history of how the indigenous people thrived with their traditions and ceremonies before the European settlers came over.

The orange shirt comes from the story of Phyllis Webstad, who upon arrival at a residential school in British Columbia in 1973 had her brand new orange shirt taken away and replaced by a school uniform.

Another activity is in preparation for Orange Shirt Day next year is designing orange shirts for next year, where the students’ designs will be sold.