Remember, Reflect, Restore, Reconcile
National Truth and Reconciliation Day September 30
National Truth and Reconciliation Day known as Orange Shirt Day is recognized as a day of rememberance, reflection and action. This is a time for thoughtful prayer and reflection on the truth of Canadian history. Native Communities across the country will be spending time with family in prayer and healing. They will reflect and remember all the lost childhoods and ancestors. Take time to teach students that Every Child Matters.
Every Child Matters
September 30th is recognized as Orange Shirt Day. On this day we remember and reflect on the former students, survivors and families of Indian Residential Schools. This day is known as National Truth and Reconciliation Day. It is a federally recognized holiday. Indigenous people and communities will spend the day with family and honour their ancestors in ceremony. Each nation will commemorate the day in a way that is unique to their own peoples practices and culture.
The colour orange is worn to show respect and honour for those who suffered at the many schools across Canada, and to build awareness around the legacy and history of these schools.
Why is the Orange Shirt a Symbol of Truth and Reconciliation?
When Phylis Webstad, an Indian Residential School Survivor, was ready to attend school, her family was so very proud. Her grandmother bought Pauline a new shirt to wear to school. Phylis felt so proud. Her new shirt was orange.
When she arrived at school wearing the beautiful orange shirt, it was taken away and replaced with an old grey smock. Phylis never saw her orange shirt again. Nor her grandmother.
The orange shirt has become the symbol of Indian Residential School legacy. It is a reminder to recall the grief and loss students felt when they left their homes and families to attend these schools.
Every Child Matters
National Truth and Reconciliation Day September 30
215
Is the number of graves recovered at Kamloops Indian Residential School in May 2021. Since that time, the number of unmarked graves discovered at Indian Residential Schools has grown to 6509 unmarked graves. (Sept.2021)
Every Child Matters Colouring Pages
Find downloadable colouring pages here. Beautiful graphics and slogans to promote Every Child Matters.
Multi languages represented.
Just click on the image and open a new window.
Integrated plans for math, literacy and social justice.
Survivor Stories and Documentaries
Disclaimer: These videos cover sensitive information. These are survivors voices, sharing their personal stories. The survivors speak on the effects of Residential Schools. I have included the entire documentary but you may wish to take a clip to show your class.
32:07min
Description:
Susie Kicknosway Jones shares her experiences with us as a First Nations person and a Christian. She reflects on her life, the suffering she had endured, and how she lives now as a survivor of the residential school system and a follower of Jesus.
Inendi
44:05min
“Elders are the most vulnerable to this pandemic and they are our knowledge keepers.”
— Sarain Fox
In Sarain Fox’s Anishinaabe culture, women lead the family. Her auntie, Mary Bell, is the oldest surviving matriarch, and she holds the family’s history: the stories, the trauma, the truth. She is a knowledge keeper.
The Indigenous way is to sit with elders while they live. And Fox’s job, as the youngest in her family, is to carry on those ways.
Mary is a residential school survivor who worked with the Truth and Reconciliation Commission to document the stories of other survivors. And now that she’s an elder, she’s focused on how those stories will live on.
Elders are knowledge keepers, but they are also among the most vulnerable to COVID-19. The pandemic is threatening to cut a line of knowledge that has survived for generations. Fox reckons with this tension and her duty to sit with her auntie to document her stories before they are lost
Stole Children. Residential Survivors Speak
18:35min
How Residential Schools affected survivors and their children and grandchildren.
Click here for the full story: http://www.cbc.ca/news/aboriginal
»»» Subscribe to The National to watch more videos here: https://www.youtube.com/user/CBCTheNa..
Canada's Dark Secret
47:30min
Canada's Dark Secret | Featured Documentary
In 1996, the last residential school in Canada was closed down, bringing to light horrifying stories about the methods used to sever indigenous children from the influence of their families and to assimilate them into the dominant "Canadian" culture. Over more than a century, tens of thousands of families were torn apart as children were kidnapped or forcibly removed from their homes
Residential schools were part of an extensive education system set up by the Canadian government and administered by churches with the objective of indoctrinating Aboriginal children into the Euro-Canadian and Christian way of life.
Bud Whiteye, a survivor of the Mohawk Institute Residential School, was "picked up" and taken to the school along with four other children as they walked along a public road to visit his grandmother.
I'm ashamed to say I'm Canadian because of what my government has done.
Ron Short, former RCMP officer
"They didn't put us in a room and indoctrinate us all day long or anything like that," he explains. "It was in the routine of the place.
"You didn't speak anything but English. You went to the white man's school. You went to the white man's church. You wore white mens' clothes. All those were built in. It wasn't a classroom-type lecture. It was ingrained in the system."
In 2008, the Canadian government launched the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC), which finally enabled survivors to give their testimonies on life in the residential schools. Abuse - mental, physical and sexual - was rife and, although research and statistics vary, it is estimated that 6,000 children died in these schools. Some evidence puts the casualties at three times that number.
After its formation, the TRC travelled around Canada for six years, gathering testimony from thousands who bore witness to the tragedies of the residential schools. Numerous "Aboriginal healing" programmes were put in place to help those affected to move on with their lives.
Intermediate Senior Resources
Remember, Reflect, Restore, Reconcile
This guide supports teachers teaching about Truth and Reconciliation. It has definitions, graphics and facts.
Read Aloud Resources
