A photo from last year’s Orange Shirt Day. File photo.
Over 500 orange shirts are being given out to students and leaders in Ile a la Crosse today.
Lieutenant Governor Vaughn Solomon Schofield and other government officials are in the northern village giving out the shirts in preparation for Orange Shirt Day on Friday.
The Orange Shirt Day initiative calls for people nationwide to wear an orange shirt on September 30 in honour of survivors of residential schools.
“Residential schools were destructive for the students as well as their families, their communities, and our nation, as a whole,” Schofield says. “I encourage everyone to join me in wearing orange on September 30 to show support and to affirm every child matters.”
The initiative was inspired by Phylis Webstad, a residential school survivor who had her brand new orange shirt replaced with the institutional uniform on the first day of residential school.
Webstad says that moment was just one of many of feeling worthless and insignificant.
Her story has been the catalyst for the national movement to honour residential school survivors in the spirit of healing and reconciliation.