As we lead up to Orange Shirt Day/National Truth and Reconciliation Day, students and staff from the First Nations Centre will be tabling in the Winter Garden from 9:30am to 3:00pm. Stop by the table for activities and to engage in conversation around Orange Shirt Day and Truth and Reconciliation.

Wear an Orange Shirt to honour the children who survived the Indian Residential School System, and honour and remember those that didn’t.

We will be meeting for a group photo of UNBC students, staff, and faculty wearing orange in the Agora courtyard at 11:45am.

Phyllis (Jack) Webstad was six years old on her first day of school at St. Joseph Mission in Williams Lake, BC. Phyllis’s grandmother had saved up to buy her a brand new orange shirt for her first day of school. Upon arrival at the school, Phyllis’s new shirt was stripped from her and never returned.

Orange Shirt Day grew out of Phyllis’s story, beginning in 2013 at the residential school commemoration event held in Williams Lake that year. It is now a nation-wide event held every year on September 30th. Earlier this year, September 30th also became recognized as the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation.

“The colour orange has always reminded me of that and how my feelings didn’t matter, how no one cared and how I felt like I was worth nothing. All of us little children were crying and no one cared.”
        -  Phyllis Webstad