Orange Shirt Day – National Day of Truth and Reconciliation – September 30

At HWDSB, we respect the longstanding relationships with the local Indigenous communities, the
Mississaugas of the Credit First Nation and the Six Nations of the Grand River.
On Friday, September 30, 2022, we encourage staff and students to wear orange to honour the story of Phyllis Webstad, who in the early 1970s had her orange shirt taken away on her first day at the St. Joseph Mission (SJM) Residential School in British Columbia.
As we learned in the May 2022 statement marking the first anniversary of the discovery of 215
unmarked graves at Kamloops Indian Residential School, the orange shirt has become “a symbol for
Indigenous peoples of resistance and survival and for Canadians, an act [of] solidarity with Indigenous
Peoples”.
Since May 2021, the search for unmarked graves has been ongoing across North America, and more
locally relevant, the search began in November 2021 at the Mohawk Institute in Brantford, Ontario. For
more information, please access Recovery, Reclamation and Revitalization — Survivors’ Secretariat
(survivorssecretariat.ca).
We encourage you to wear orange on Friday, September 30 to honour the children whose lives were lost as well as survivors, families and communities experiencing intergenerational trauma, and as a
personal commitment to engage in education, commemoration, and healing/wellness in the spirit of
Truth and Reconciliation.