OPSEU members are encouraged to wear their orange T-shirts on September 30th and share their photos in support of the children and families who attended Residential Schools. Raising awareness and educating others is included in the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s Calls To Action.
Orange Shirt Day is inspired by Phyllis Jack Webstad. On her first day at a residential school in 1973, Phyllis was stripped of her new orange shirt, a shirt that had brought her a sense of affirmation and dignity. Canadians are asked to wear orange as a sign of support for children and communities affected by the Residential School System. Wearing an orange shirt reminds us of the devastating legacy of residential schools and the courageous testimony of survivors offered through the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC). It is an opportunity to remind Canadians of the need to continue to work diligently towards implementing the TRC’s 94 Calls to Action.
Ms. Webstad’s story is the nucleus for what has become a national movement to recognize the experience of survivors of residential schools, honour them, and show a collective commitment to ensure that every child matters. The initiative calls for every Canadian to wear an orange shirt on September 30 in the spirit of healing and reconciliation. The date, September 30, was chosen because that was the time of the year the trucks and buses would enter the communities to “collect” the children and deliver them to their harsh new reality of cultural assimilation, mental, sexual and physical abuse, shame and deprivation.
