Orange Shirt Day

Every year on September 30th, we wear orange! This year, HWDSB will be observing this day on Friday, September 29th.

Orange shirt day has been declared an annual day to honour the lives and survivors of Canada’s Indian Residential Schools. The Indian Residential School system was put in place by the state and church to forcibly remove Indian children from their homes, families and communities to attend church-led schools.

In these schools, Indian children were forced to leave their culture, languages, and everything they new behind to be more like the rest of the children of the nation. The harm the children faced while in these schools is irreversible, and many children and families still face the inter-generational affects caused by the Residential School era. The last Indian Residential School closed in Saskatchewan in 1996.

We wear orange to honour the lives lost and survivors of Indian residential schools and to ultimately acknowledge that every child matters.