WATCH: Orange Shirt Day remembers what happened to First Nations students at residential schools across Canada. Monica Martinez reports.
Elders from the Tsarlip First Nation are at Stelly’s Secondary School, sharing their stories as residential school survivors.
Lila Sam was taken away from her family when she was 15 years old, spending four years at a residential school.
“It’s time for everybody to learn what we went through. Being away at residential school really done a lot of harm to myself,” she said.
September 30th is about recognizing and educating people of the suffering First Nations children and their families experienced at residential schools.
The orange shirt honours those survivors.
Phyllis Jack Webstad started the initiative three years ago. She wore an orange shirt on her first day at a residential school. It was 1973 and she was only six years old, but teachers took her clothes away and the colour orange came to have a new meaning for her.
“No one listened to us, our feelings didn’t matter, we didn’t matter,” she said in a video.
At Stelly’s, students said it’s been an eye opening day.
“It’s been kind of sad honestly. The fact that no one really knew what was happening and the fact it was happening as severe as it was is depressing,” said grade 11 student Ben Gorman.
On top of the assembly, Stelly’s also has a Truth and Reconciliation exhibit, known as 100 Years of Loss,
“To imagine my children taken away from me, I can’t imagine the sorrow and pains of the family that were left behind,” said indigenous education assistant Philip Tom.
In the spirit of Truth and Reconciliation, the orange shirt is a simple gesture towards understanding and healing.
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