How To Help Children Learn About Orange Shirt Day (National Day for Truth and Reconciliation)

In Canada, the Indian residential school system was a network of boarding schools created to isolate Indigenous children from the influence of their own native culture and spiritual teachings. Around 150,000 children (4 to 16 years old) were forcefully taken from their families and placed in residential schools across Canada. These children were abused, beaten, humiliated, dehumanized and sexually assaulted. Many children did not survive with estimated deaths ranging from 3,200 to over 30,000. The total number of deaths remains unknown due to incomplete records, but more unmarked graves continue to be discovered across Canada every year.

Orange Shirt Day, September 30th, is a day to honour and uphold Survivors and intergenerational Survivors of the Indian residential school system, and to commemorate those who never returned home.

A group of female students and a nun pose in a classroom at Cross Lake Indian Residential School in Cross Lake, Manitoba in February 1940. Photograph: Reuters

Why is it important for kids to learn about Orange Shirt Day?

For all of us, Orange Shirt Day provides an opportunity to discuss the generational and societal damage of residential schools and their legacy so that it never happens again. It also honours the experiences of Indigenous Peoples, celebrates resilience and affirms a commitment that every child matters.

For children specifically, it allows them to learn about, and reconcile with, the truth about Canada’s past and how it continues to affect Indigenous people today. It provides them with an opportunity to learn about the acknowledgment of trauma and the resilience of Indigenous communities. It’s also important to educate children on difficult topics like this in age-appropriate ways. Kids need to learn how to deal with difficult and complex things that affect all of us in our day-to-day life.

For children, talking about resilience can be very powerful. One of the most well-known stories kids can relate to is of Phyllis Webstad who, on her first day of attending residential school in 1973, decided to wear an orange shirt from her Grandmother. When she arrived, her orange shirt (along with all her clothes) were taken from her.

“The colour orange has always reminded me of that and how my feelings didn’t matter, how no one cared and how I felt like I was worth nothing.” ~ Phyllis Webstad, Author of Phyllis's Orange Shirt

Orange Shirt Day’s message is that every child matters.

Here are some valuable resources for teachers, parents and children to learn more about Orange Shirt Day and our National Day for Truth and Reconciliation

Teachers/Parents

• What Is Reconciliation? by Calvin Murray Sinclair

• Talking To Kids About Residential Schools

• Orange Shirt Day Teacher Resources: Building Bridges, Resource Guides And Toolkits (K-12)

• Indigenous Peoples Atlas of Canada by Canadian Geographic

• Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada: Calls to Action

• Reconciliation Education

• Whose Land: a web-based app that uses GIS technology to assist users in identifying Indigenous Nations, territories, and Indigenous communities across Canada

• Talking About Residential Schools with "When We Were Alone" | David A. Robertson | For Educators

Kids

• Phyllis’s Orange Shirt

• We Are Water Protectors

• Welcome Family and Friends to Our Bighouse

• The word Indigenous - explained l CBC Kids

• What is reconciliation? | CBC Kids

• Namwayut: we are all one. Truth and reconciliation in Canada

• Every Child Matters: Truth - Act One

• Molly of Denali: The daily adventures of 10-year-old Alaska native Molly Mabray, her family, her dog Suki and her friends Tooey and Trini

Noteworthy and well-known books (consider buying books from indigenous-owned Bookstores like Massy Books, Good Minds, etc)

• Our Story: Aboriginal Voices on Canada's Past by Thomas King, Tantoo Cardinal and Tomson Highway

• Seven Fallen Feathers: Racism, Death, and Hard Truths in a Northern City by Tanya Talaga

• Unsettling Canada: A National Wake-up Call by Arthur Manuel, Grand Chief Ronald M. Derrickson, Naomi Klein

• Namwayut - We Are All One by Chief Robert Joseph

• 21 Things You May Not Know About the Indian Act by Bob Joseph

• The Inconvenient Indian: A Curious Account of Native People in North America by Thomas King

• Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants by Robin Wall Kimmerer

• Making Love with the Land by Joshua Whitehead

• Indian Horse by Richard Wagamese

• One Story, One Song by Richard Wagamese

• As We Have Always Done: Indigenous Freedom through Radical Resistance by Leanne Betasamosake Simpson

Support and engage with indigenous-led organizations in your community

• Urban Native Youth Association

• Reconciliation Canada

• Indian Residential School Survivor Society (IRSSS)

• The National Association of Friendship Centres (NAFC)

• Indigenous Climate Action (ICA)

• Yellowhead Institute

• Support Network for Indigenous Women & Women of Colour (SNIWWOC)

• Jordan’s Principle: Assembly of First Nations