What do orange shirts have to do with Truth & Reconciliation?
The Orange Shirt Day movement started when Chief Fred Robbins (Esketemc) envisioned the St. Joseph Residential School Commemoration Project and reunion events held in May 2013. The purpose of the events was to recognize the truths of residential schools from the perspectives of former students, witness individual and collective trauma, and honour healing journeys.
Phyllis Webstad was a former St. Joseph’s student and a spokesperson for the group organizing the reunion events. Her story of being taken from her family to be sent to residential school when she was 6, losing her much-loved, brand new, shiny orange shirt became a nationally recognized metaphor for the legacy of residential schools: a system that tried to steal everything that Indigenous children knew and loved: safety, identity, language, culture, and family.
Phyllis’s orange shirt became synonymous with the belief that Every Child Matters, and the symbol of a national movement: Orange Shirt Day. September 30 was chosen as Orange Shirt Day as an acknowledgement that most children taken to residential schools were taken from their families in September. Orange Shirt Day became a federally-observed holiday — the National Day for Truth & Reconciliation – in 2021 in response to the Truth and Reconciliation Committee’s 80th Call to Action.
Learn more at orangeshirtday.org.
How are you observing Orange Shirt Day – the National Day for Truth & Reconciliation this year?
There are lots of events planned in and around Hamilton for the week of September 30. Unless otherwise noted, events are FREE.
Ongoing:
VIRTUAL Tour of the Former Mohawk Institute Residential School (Woodland Cultural Centre).
Cost: $10/pp donation to Woodland Cultural Centre educational programming
Monday, September 28:
Public lecture: Niigaan Sinclair at McMaster University
2:30-4:30pm at MDCL 3020
IN-PERSON EVENT. Registration is required.
Tuesday, September 29:
Karenna’onwe (Dr. Karen Hill) book launch: The Good Mind – Hamilton Public Library, West Harbour Branch IN-PERSON EVENT.
Afternoon of Learning, Reflection and Cultural Sharing hosted by Hamilton Urban Core Community Health Centre in partnership with the Hamilton Regional Indian Centre and the Art Gallery of Hamilton.
1:00-3:00pm at Hamilton Urban Core CHC (430 Cannon St. E.)
Wednesday, September 30
Art Installation curated by Bawaadan Collective, hosted by the City of Hamilton. – Gore Park
Annual Sunrise Ceremony and Morning Gathering – West Harbour James St. Plaza (James St. N at Guise St. E.)
7am – sunrise ceremony
10am-noon – morning gathering
Day of Reflection, Learning, Culture and Community at the Woodland Cultural Centre (184 Mohawk Street, Brantford)
9:00am – 4:30pm. Registration required. Pay-by-donation.
Remembering the Children: National Day for Truth and Reconciliation – Parliament Hill, broadcast live on APTN and APTN Languages, and streamed online on the APTN website. Watch party of the live broadcast at Sankofa Square, Toronto
12:00pm
The Right to Truth: Protecting Indian Residential School Records. Hosted by The Yellowhead Institute at Evergreen Brickworks, Toronto. (Virtual and in-person participation options.)
Registration required (in person) and recommended (online)
3:00PM-5:00PM
Walk for Reconciliation and Peace – Spencer Smith Park, Gazebo (1400 Lakeshore Rd., W., Burlington).
Begins at 5pm. Free. No registration.
Wear orange shirts and moccasins, if you have them.
Hosted by the City of Burlington’s Indigenous Advisory Circle.