Orange Shirt Day — September 30
“I envision a National Day for Truth and Reconciliation 100 years from now where Canadians will know the true history of Indigenous people – not only what we endured, but also our cultural values and teachings that gave us our strength for thousands of years.”
-Levinia Brown (Inuk residential school survivor)
This September 30, Canada will mark its second National Day for Truth and Reconciliation. This is a statutory holiday created in response to Call to Action #80 of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission's Final Report (to date, only 14 of the 94 Calls have been responded to in the seven years since the Calls were released). This day is meant to honour the survivors of residential schools, the children who never returned home, their families and their communities. It is a day for learning for non-Indigenous Canadians and a day for celebrating resilience and overcoming for Indigenous Peoples.
The holiday was placed on September 30th, which is also Orange Shirt Day. Orange Shirt day is a grassroots movement that started in Williams Lake, BC, in 2013, and grew into a nation-wide, Indigenous-led practice of celebration, observed particularly in schools through the wearing of orange shirts, ribbons, and pins. (With September 30 now a day in which schools are not in session, many students have been encouraged to wear orange to class on September 29 instead.)
Resources
Visit the pages below to learn more about this significant day, and come back to the Red Clover website in the future for more resources on how to engage practices of remembrance, restoration, and reconciliation.