EVERY CHILD MATTERS

Between the late 1800s and 1996, more than 150,000 First Nations, Métis and Inuit children attended Indian residential schools. Orange Shirt Day | National Day for Truth and Reconciliation commemorates this legacy.

The Orange Shirt Day movement was started by Phyllis Webstad, a member of the Stswecem’c Xgat’tem First Nation and former residential school student, to honour Survivors and intergenerational Survivors, and to remember those children who never made it home.  

Phyllis's grandmother bought her a brand new orange shirt to wear on her first day at a Residential School in British Columbia. When she arrived, her orange shirt was taken from her and she never saw it again. Orange Shirt Day commemorates the residential school experience as a first step towards reconciliation and reminds us that Every Child Matters.