First Orange Shirt Day
Sept. 30, 2013
Phyllis Webstad as a youth
On this day in 2013, the first Orange Shirt Day is observed by Cariboo-Chilcotin School District 27. The day of remembrance for residential school survivors came out of a May 2013 St. Joseph Mission Commemoration Project and Reunion which brought residential school survivors and their families together at Williams Lake, British Columbia. At the event, Phyllis Webstad, a Northern Secwepemc (Shuswap) woman from Stswecem’c Xgat’tem First Nation (Canoe Creek Indian Band) shared her story of going to school with a new orange shirt which was promptly taken away from her on her first day of residential school as her suffering began. She later stated, “I didn’t understand why they wouldn’t give it back to me, it was mine! The colour orange has always reminded me of that and how my feelings didn’t matter, how no one cared and how I felt like I was worth nothing. All of us little children were crying, and no one cared.”
The intention for the day of remembrance is to bring awareness, respect, and education to the issue of residential schools and colonialism. The 30th of September was chosen because it was the day that, for generations, Indigenous children were taken from their homes and forced into the schools.
The intention for the day of remembrance is to bring awareness, respect, and education to the issue of residential schools and colonialism. The 30th of September was chosen because it was the day that, for generations, Indigenous children were taken from their homes and forced into the schools.