Orange Shirt Day

Watch the video below and read our essays to learn about Orange Shirt Day.

Orange Shirt Day

Orange shirt day, September 30th is a day to honor residential school survivors.

Phyllis Webstad is a residential school survivor of the Dog Creek First Nation. She went to a school they called The Mission. On the first day she had a bright orange shirt that when she walked in the door had been stripped off of her. She was forced to wear a uniform instead. She desperately wanted to go home, but she stayed there for 300 sleeps. She hoped that she would be sent home but alas not. Her mother and grandmother before her each went to residential school for ten years each. For only a six-year-old that can be a scaring experience.


So, in my opinion as a 12-year-old of First Nation heritage, residential school should never have existed, but it’s too late for that. So we can at least wear an orange shirt for those who survived and those who did not.

By Kashtyn

Orange Shirt Day

  Orange shirt day, September 30th is a day to honour residential school survivors. It is also a day we can take to remember our friends, family, loved ones, and just the First Nations in general that did not survive the residential schools, to see their families once more.    

   Phyllis Webstad is a member of the Dog Creek First Nation. When Phyllis was six years old, she was taken from her home and family, and was sent to a residential school they called, The Mission. She stayed there for three hundred nights. On the day that she went, her grandmother bought her a beautiful orange shirt that she absolutely loved. Once she arrived, they stripped her from her clothes and belongings, and cut her hair so it was very short, and she never saw her orange shirt again. Phyllis desperately wanted to go home to her granny, her and the rest of the kids would cry almost every night and would plead to go home, but their voices were never herd.

  In my opinion it’s important to learn the history of Canadas First People.   

By Alexis