Orange Shirt Day & National Day for Truth and Reconciliation

September 30 is Orange Shirt Day and the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation. Kids (and grown-ups) are encouraged to wear orange to school, daycare or wherever the day takes you, to show that every child matters. It is a day to honour the children who never came home from residential schools, the survivors, and their families and communities.

For more than 150 years, over 150,000 First Nations, Inuit and Métis children were taken from their families and sent to residential schools, where they were cut off from their languages, cultures and loved ones. Many suffered abuse, and thousands died. The last school closed in 1996, so many survivors are still with us today. Children from First Nations here in our own area were among them.

Orange Shirt Day began in 2013 with the story of Phyllis Webstad, who was six when the new orange shirt her grandmother bought her was taken away on her first day at residential school. The orange shirt has become a symbol that every child matters. Canada made September 30 a national day in 2021, answering one of the Calls to Action from the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.

Ways to mark the day as a family: pull out something orange to wear, read a book or watch a video about residential schools together at a level that suits your kids, and take time to listen to Indigenous voices. Phyllis Webstad's picture book The Orange Shirt Story is a gentle place to start with younger children. The National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation has resources for all ages at nctr.ca.

In Sarnia, City Hall, the Strangway Centre and the compost site are closed for the day. Buses and garbage collection run as usual.