ORANGE SHIRT DAY
I wore an orange shirt yesterday, September 30th
it’s a shirt I wanted everyone to see…
even though the color orange doesn’t look that good on me.
The reason has to do with a gruesome chapter in North America’s history:
Phyllis Webstad was a six year old young Native Nations girl back on 1973.
She was sent to a church-run school in Canada.
She was wearing an orange shirt her very first day
when the staff at the school decided…to take her orange shirt away.
From her experience in that school…that orange shirt came to be
a symbol of how those schools tried to strip native nation children
of their culture, their pride and their dignity.
They wanted every trace of who they were…by any means to expel…
It is the same behavior that went on in our country as well.
The Every Child Matters slogan on my shirt
is a reminder of how Canada and the US broke all of humanity’s rules…
and recognizes the pain, trauma and suffering
indigenous children experienced in those mandatory residential schools.
Wearing the orange shirt is one small but effective way
to bring awareness to the way indigenous children were treated
in Canada and the USA.
It’s one way…of reminding those who want to erase this horrible time in our history
that you might succeed in taking it out of our books…but it remains in our memory.
As a country we should use the shame we feel to lead us to the goal
of improving future behavior…thus enriching our country’s soul.
If wearing an orange shirt helps shed a light on this horrible time
in Canada’s and our country’s history too
then every September 30th
that is exactly what I’ll do…
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