Orange Shirt Day

Orange Shirt Day () is an event, created in 2013, designed to educate people and promote awareness in Canada about the Indian residential school system and the impact it has had on Indigenous communities for over a century—an impact recognized as a cultural genocide, and an impact that continues today. It is held annually on September 30 in Canadian communities, especially in schools, where people are encouraged to wear an orange shirt.
Background.
Indian residential school system.
Shortly after Confederation, the new nation of Canada inherited the treaties signed between the Crown and the First Nations of Canada. Prime Minister John A. Macdonald was faced with a country with disparate cultures and identities and wanted to forge a new Canadian identity to unite the country and ensure its survival. It was Macdonald's goal to absorb the First Nations into the general population of Canada and extinguish their culture. In 1878, he commissioned Nicholas Flood Davin to write a report about residential schools in the United States. One year later, Davin reported that only residential schools could separate aboriginal children from their parents and culture and cause them "to be merged and lost" within the nation. Davin argued that the government should work with the Christian churches to open these schools.
Beginning in 1883, the government began funding Indian residential schools across Canada, which were run primarily by the Roman Catholic Church and the Anglican Church; but also included the United Church of Canada, the Methodist Church, and the Presbyterian Church. When the separation of children from their parents was resisted, the government responded by making school attendance compulsory in 1894, and empowered the Royal Canadian Mounted Police to seize children from reserves and bring them to the residential schools. When parents came to take their children away from the schools, the pass system was created, banning Indigenous people from leaving their reserve without a "pass" from an Indian agent. Conditions at the schools were rough as schools were underfunded and disease was rampant: chief medical officer Peter Bryce wrote a report on the high mortality rates at the schools in 1906 (as high as 69% at one school, but frequently ranging between 30 and 60 percent); after his forced retirement from the public service, he published the report in 1922, causing a public scandal. Many schools did not communicate the news of the deaths of students to the students' families, burying the children in unmarked graves. In many schools, sexual abuse was common, and students were forced to work to help raise money for the school. Students were beaten for speaking their indigenous languages.
By the 1950s, the government began to relax restrictions on the First Nations of Canada, and began to work towards shutting the schools down. In 1969, the government seized control of the residential schools from the churches; and by the 1980s, only a few schools remained open, with the last school closing in 1996.
Truth and Reconciliation.
In 1986, the United Church of Canada apologized for its role in the residential school system. In 1992, the Anglican church followed suit and apologized. Some Catholic organizations have apologized for their role in the residential school system, and in 2009 Pope Benedict XVI expressed sorrow for the experiences of the residential school survivors, but the Roman Catholic Church has not formally apologized for its role in the residential school system. In 2017, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau asked the pope to issue an apology over its role in the Indian residential school system.
In 1991, the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples was formed to investigate the relationship between indigenous peoples in Canada, the government of Canada, and Canadian society as a whole. When its final report was presented in 1996, it led the government to make a statement of reconciliation in 1998, and established the Aboriginal Healing Foundation.
In 2008, Prime Minister Stephen Harper apologized on behalf of the Canadian government for the Indian residential school system, and created the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada, to find out what happened at the Indian residential schools. The commission released its final report in 2015, which found that the Indian residential school system was an act of "cultural genocide" against the First Nations of Canada.
The Truth and Reconciliation Commission found that the residential school system disrupted the ability of parents to pass on their indigenous languages to their children, leading to 70% of Canada's Aboriginal languages being classified as endangered. It found that the deliberately poor education offered at the residential school system created a poorly educated indigenous population in Canada, which impacted the incomes those students could earn as adults, and impacted the educational achievement of their children and grandchildren, who were frequently raised in low-income homes. It also found that the sexual and physical abuse received at the schools created life-long trauma in residential school survivors, trauma and abuse which was often passed down to their children and grandchildren, which continues to create victims of the residential school system today.
History.
Origins.
The inspiration for Orange Shirt Day came from residential school survivor Phyllis Jack Webstad, who shared her story at a St. Joseph Mission (SJM) Residential School Commemoration Project and Reunion event held in Williams Lake, British Columbia, in the spring of 2013. Phyllis recounted her first day of residential schooling at six years old, when she was stripped of her clothes, including the new orange shirt her grandmother bought her, which was never returned. The orange shirt now symbolizes how the residential school system took away the indigenous identity of its students.
Today, Orange Shirt Day exists as a legacy of the SJM Project, and September 30, the annual date of the event, signifies the time of year when Indigenous children were historically taken from their homes to residential schools. The official tagline of the day, "Every Child Matters", reminds Canadians that all peoples' cultural experiences are important.
In addition to simply wearing an orange shirt, Canadians are encouraged to learn more about the history of residential schools and their assimilation practices, drawing from Phyllis' experience in particular. For instance, many communities have held memorial walks, film screenings, and public lectures to raise awareness about Indigenous history. Accordingly, school boards across Canada have begun to use this event to teach children about the historic system.
Government recognition.
In 2017, Canada's Indigenous Services Minister Jane Philpott and Indigenous Relations and Northern Affairs Minister Carolyn Bennett encouraged people across Canada to participate in this commemorative and educational event.
In 2018, the Department of Canadian Heritage and Multiculturalism announced its consideration for establishing a statutory holiday to honour the legacy of residential schools, whereby September 30 was one of the dates being considered. The Heritage Committee chose Orange Shirt Day, which was submitted by Georgina Jolibois as a private member's bill to the House of Commons, where it passed on March 21, 2019; however, the bill was unable to make it through the Senate before the next election was called.
On September 29, 2020, during the subsequent parliamentary session, Canada's Heritage Minister Steven Guilbeault tabled a new bill proposing that Orange Shirt Day become a national statutory holiday, similar to the previous proposal by Georgina Jolibois. The new holiday would be officially named the "National Day for Truth and Reconciliation".
Television.
On October 11, 2020, CBC Television and the Aboriginal Peoples Television Network jointly aired "Every Child Matters: Reconciliation Through Education", a television special produced by the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation to mark Orange Shirt Day by highlighting the stories of various residential school survivors. The special received two Canadian Screen Award nominations at the 9th Canadian Screen Awards in 2021, for Best Children's or Youth Non-Fiction Program or Series and Best Picture Editing in a Factual Program or Series (Craig Anderson, Cathy Gulkin, James Kinistino and Ken Yan).
Criticism.
One criticism of the annual event has been the high cost of the official shirts created by the Orange Shirt Society. Additionally, in 2017, because of the popularity of the event, there were challenges meeting the demand for shirts. As a work-around, many local communities have created their own designs of T-shirts to wear on the day of the event. Designer Carey Newman created a limited edition t-shirt for Orange Shirt Day in 2017 that sold out in less than 48 hours. Newman's father attended residential school and his design was in honour of that legacy.