enter image alt text
Orange Memories

on 30 September, Cindy Blackstock and all the others who are fighting for the rights of Indigenous peoples celebrate Orange Shirt Day.

Above, children in Kitigan Zibi remembered the children hurt in residential schools by forming a sacred circle around a memorial. Hundreds of pairs of children’s shoes that had previously been left outside Canada’s parliament were buried at the memorial site.

Phyllis Webstad wasn’t allowed to keep her new shirt. Now, children all over Canada learn about her and other survivors.

Orange Shirt Day

Orange Shirt Day started after Phyllis Webstad, a survivor, spoke about when she was sent to residential school at the age of six. Phyllis was so proud of her new orange shirt, given to her by her grandmother to wear at school. But as soon as she arrived, they took the shirt away from her, and Phyllis never got it back.

“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,” says Phyllis.

On Orange Shirt Day, everyone helps heal the wounds from the residential schools with dance, song and ceremonies. The message is that every child matters.

In the First Nation Community of Kitigan Zibi, one might say that every day is Orange Shirt Day. For years, people here have had displayed orange shirts by the roadside. They will stay there until justice have been served, community members explain.
Related stories
enter image alt text
Cindy's Story
In May 2021, 215 unmarked children’s graves are discovered outside a closed school in Canada.
enter image alt text
Shannen's dream
Shannen dreamed of a proper school in her little town of Attawapiskat in northern Canada.
enter image alt text
Children ‘re-educated’
Thomas Moore Keesick was eight years old when he was taken from his parents and placed in Regina Indian Industrial School.
enter image alt text
Life in residential schools
The Canadian government decided that Indigenous children had to be taken away from their mums and dads before they ‘learned to become savages like their parents’.
enter image alt text
Tried to run away
Chanie Wenjack was 12 when he and two friends ran away from their residential school in 1966.
enter image alt text
Dancing for the future
Every year, girls and women from Canada’s Indigenous communities go missing.
Beautiful lake and forest.
We're still here
“I’m glad that we have a great school where we live,” says Wade, 14.
enter image alt text
Powwow power!
“Powwows are like medicine for our people,” explains Theland Kicknosway.
A group of older men dressed in First Nations regalia stand together outside a tipi.
Seven grandfather teachings
The Seven Grandfather teachings are about what’s most important in life, and how to treat our fellow human beings, particularly children.
enter image alt text
Culture curriculum
It's culture days at Kikinamadinan school in Kitigan Zibi, a First nation reserve.
enter image alt text
Doctor protested
Peter Henderson Bryce was a doctor who was sent by the government in 1907 to inspect the infamous residential schools for Indigenous children.
Red stop-sign in hthree languages, cree, english and french.
Indigenous peoples in Canada
Indigenous peoples in the area that is now called Canada lived there for tens of thousands of years before settlers arrived, mainly from the UK and France.
enter image alt text
Cindy Blackstock
Cindy works tirelessly to combat discrimination of Indigenous children, raise awareness and pursue legal cases.
WORLD'S CHILDRENS PRIZE FOUNDATION

Långgatan 13, 647 30, Mariefred, Sweden
Phone: +46-159-129 00 • info@worldschildrensprize.org

© 2020 World’s Children’s Prize Foundation. All rights reserved. WORLD'S CHILDREN'S PRIZE®, the Foundation's logo, WORLD'S CHILDREN'S PRIZE FOR THE RIGHTS OF THE CHILD®, WORLD'S CHILDREN'S PARLIAMENT®, WORLD'S CHILDREN'S OMBUDSMAN®, WORLD'S CHILDREN'S PRESS CONFERENCE® and YOU ME EQUAL RIGHTS are service marks of the Foundation.

 
x
x
x