09/30/2026
🧡2013 Phyllis Webstad (Founder of Orange shirt day) shared her experience about her first day at Residential school. Her grandmother took her shopping for an outfit, Phyllis chose a shiny orange shirt and she described this shiny shirt as a reflection of her excitement to be starting her first day.
🧡When Phyllis arrived at the school she was immediately stripped of her clothing and was put into a uniform. Phylis never saw that orange shirt again and the color orange reminds her that at six years old she felt like no one cared for her feelings in that institution. Phylis felt worthless and it hurt because no one cared how much the children cried.
🧡Every year on September 30th we wear Orange to honor the survivors, families and those who never made it home from Boarding School. September was chosen as it is the time of year that children return to school.
🧡 Orange now represents everything that was taken from our relatives: Their families, their homes, their land, their hair, their language, their identity, their confidence, their innocence, their lives and their future.
🧡 Orange can also represent our resilience, how much we are healing and thriving despite the attempts to erase us. It represents the importance to acknowledge and keep the conversations alive about these experiences so that our people may heal.
🧡 Children are not too young to learn about this truth, but please be mindful how much you share with them about the extent of the abuse.
Phyllis also has a children’s book that is a great teaching tool to help children understand why we wear orange.
🧡 For more information on orange shirt day please visit https://www.orangeshirtday.org/phyllis-story.html
