Orange Shirt Day Canada National Truth and Reconciliation
Life

How to buy Indigenous for Orange Shirt Day 2022

by Amy German

The National Day for Truth and Reconciliation is coming up on Sept. 30, and it’s ideal to buy orange shirts from Indigenous vendors or vendors donating their proceeds to Indigenous organizations or communities.

Sept. 30 is the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation, as well as Orange Shirt Day. For those participating, it’s ideal to buy orange shirts from Indigenous vendors or vendors donating their proceeds to Indigenous organizations or communities, to benefit the people still recovering from the trauma of residential school.

The event commemorates Canada’s brutal legacy of Indigenous child genocide, those that survived and those that never made it home. Approximately 150,000 First Nations, Métis and Inuit children were forced to attend residential schools between the 1870s to 1990s, though generations of Canada’s Indigenous peoples still feel the ripples of intergenerational trauma and loss. Adding to that has been the recent efforts to discover unmarked graves of children who died at these facilities across the country, children whose death’s had not been previously accounted for. At present, the count is up to about 1,900, but the grounds of many schools have yet to be searched with ground penetrating radar.

The federal government declared the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation in 2001, suggesting that the provinces and territories adopt a holiday. Over two decades later, some provincial governments have not gotten on board, including Quebec.

Regardless of the provincial stance, people are encouraged to wear orange T-shirts, much like the one Phyllis Webstad tried to wear to residential school as a child, only to have it confiscated in an act of forced assimilation.

For those looking to purchase shirts by local designers and get them in time for Sept. 30, check out the Kahnawake-based vendors below.

Purple Dragonfly

RLI Events

Mi’kMaq Printing & Design

The second annual Montreal march for Truth and Reconciliation will take place on Friday, Sept. 30 at 1 p.m.

How to buy Indigenous for Orange Shirt Day 2022

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Posted in Life

by Amy German

Contributor
Having worked in the magazine industry since 2001, Amy German began her career at the Montreal Mirror, worked at Hour Magazine, Nightlife Montreal and the Nation Magazine, covering Indigenous issues. Looking to explore other professional avenues, she is all about the health, beauty and fashion but always through a feminist lens.