Orange shirt day was "designed to commemorate the residential school experience, to witness and honour the healing journey of the survivors and their families, and to commit to the ongoing process of reconciliation. [...] It is an opportunity to create meaningful discussion about the effects of Residential Schools and the legacy they have left behind. [...] 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. It is an opportunity for First Nations, local governments, schools and communities to come together in the spirit of reconciliation and hope for generations of children to come."
(Orange Shirt Society https://www.orangeshirtday.org/)
(Orange Shirt Society https://www.orangeshirtday.org/)
Indigenous communities have always mentioned that many children never returned from residential schools, however governments and people turned a blind eye. The recent discovery of 215 bodies of children in unmarked graves at Kamloops residential schools has reopened this discussion and brought new awareness to the horrors that happened in these institutions between the 1870s and the 1990s in Canada. The last residential school in Canada closed in 1996. There were over 139 residential schools operating across Canada, and many more in the USA as well. Since the Kamloops discovery, more ground penitrating raidar has been used at former residential schools across Canada. Below is an image of how many unmarked graves have been discovered so far. There are many more schools to examine.
Our thoughts are with all these children who never got to return home to their families.
Our thoughts are with all these children who never got to return home to their families.
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During the 2020/2021 school year, classes created multiple displays to raise awareness of the discoveries at residential schools across Canada. See below for some of the displays.
resources to learn more about orange shirt day and residential schools
Explore these books below to find titles in our library collection
that you can check out to learn more about residential schools in Canada.
that you can check out to learn more about residential schools in Canada.