Orange Shirt Day

What is Orange Shirt Day?

Orange Shirt Day is honoured annually to commemorate the lives and survivors of Canada’s
Residential Schools and recognize the impacts that continue today. There were approximately
130 Indian Residential Schools in Ontario. Indigenous children as young as 2-16 years old were
taken from their parents and families, some never to be seen again. Today, “Indigenous, First
Nations, Inuit, and Metis children under 14 makes up 52.2% of all children in foster care”

HWDSB is observing this day on September 30. The date was chosen because it is the time of
year in which children were taken from their homes and families to residential schools.

Why Orange Shirts?

Orange Shirt Day is a legacy of the St. Joseph Mission (SJM) residential school commemoration
event held in Williams Lake, BC, Canada, in the spring of 2013. It grew out of Phyllis’ story of
having her new orange shirt taken away on her first day of Residential school. It has become an
opportunity to keep the discussion on all aspects of residential schools happening annually.