Orange Shirt Day 2020 at Superior North CDSB
Every year on Sept 30th, also known as Orange Shirt Day – Every Child Matters, we honour the Indigenous children who were sent away to Residential Schools in Canada.
Did you know that over 150,000 Indigenous children attended Residential Schools? Students between the ages of 4 to 16 were taken away from their families and placed in these Schools, which ran for over 100 years with the last Residential School closing in 1996.
Orange Shirt Day is a legacy of the St. Joseph Mission (SJM) residential school commemoration event held in Williams Lake BC, Canada, in the Spring of 2013. It grew out of Phyllis’ Story of having her shiny new orange shirt taken away on her first day of school at the Mission, and it has become an opportunity to keep the discussion on all aspects of residential schools happening annually.
The date was chosen because it is the time of year in which children were taken from their homes to residential schools, and because it is an opportunity to set the stage for anti-racism and anti-bullying policies for the coming school year.Orange Shirt Day is an opportunity to create meaningful discussions about the effects of Residential Schools and the legacy they have left behind. Orange Shirt Day is also an opportunity for Indigenous Peoples, local governments, schools and communities to come together in the spirit of reconciliation and hope for generations of children to come.
On October 30, 2020 staff and students at all our schools participated in Orange Shirt Day to honour residential school survivors and victims
