Orange Shirt Day: Remembering residential schools in Canada

Since 2013, Sept. 30 has been a day to mark a shameful chapter in Canadian history: the cultural genocide committed via the residential school system, which separated Indigenous children from their families and sought to rob them of their culture — quite literally, as in the case of the woman whose story gave Orange Shirt Day its name.

In 2013, residential school survivor Phyllis Jack Webstad recounted the story of her first day of residential school when she was six years old: She was stripped and robbed of a new orange shirt that had been bought by her grandmother, which is typical of the way the residential school system tried to erase the Indigenous identity of its students.

The residential school system has had lasting impacts on Indigenous peoples and communities across the country. On #OrangeShirtDay, we honour the survivors who had their language, culture, and families stolen from them – and we remember those whose lives were cut far too short.
— Justin Trudeau (@JustinTrudeau) September 30, 2020

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