The MRU Campus Store will be selling orange shirts for $24.95 in support of National Truth and Reconciliation Day (Adam Vyse, CMRU.ca).
Discussion about the “Holiday”
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau recognized the 30th of September in 2021 as “The National Day for Truth and Reconciliation.”
Trudeau did so after the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada (TRC) released 94 calls to action in 2015 that could lead to reconciliation – the 80th being a nationally recognized holiday.
The term “holiday” is quite a stretch in my opinion for Truth and Reconciliation Day, because is Remembrance Day a holiday?
As a white-guy in his mid 20s, when I think of Truth and Reconciliation day, there is obvious guilt calling it a holiday and getting the day off classes or work.
I think it should be made as a statutory day off, used to gain perspective on the genocide that took place in our country – especially if you are not First Nations.
An inspiring takeaway from Truth and Reconciliation Day is the sea of orange shirts, as the national holiday is also recognized as “Orange Shirt Day.”
What orange shirts represent
The orange shirts are symbolic of residential school survivors, Phyllis (Jack) Webstad is an author and activist from the Stswecem’c Xgat’tem First Nation.
Webstad created the “Orange Shirt Day” grassroots movement in 2019 as a way to symbolize the loss, forced assimilation, and genocide of indigenous culture.
Webstad was just 6-years-old and living in William’s Lake, when her grandmother took her to buy new clothes before going off to St. Joseph Mission school, specifically a bright orange shirt to signify her excitement.
However, that excitement would instantly vanish upon entry as she was stripped. She would never get her orange shirt back seeing it on other students, and would never have expected the horrors from the Mission school, also known as a Residential School.
Residential schools
A church-sponsored residential school opened in 1831, by the 1880s the federal government was funding residential schools. The government finally shut the last school down in 1996 marking the end of the forced government-funded assimilation schools.
The national “holiday” is instituted to hopefully recognize the targeted destruction caused by the government on Indigenous culture and lead towards a path to reconciliation, and reinforce the idea in all Canadians that EVERY CHILD MATTERS.
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