By Angela Brown

Residential School survivors to be honoured with Orange Shirt Day

Sep 25, 2017 | 4:54 PM

Locals will join Residential School survivors this week to honour them in a special ceremony. 

The event is part of national Orange Shirt Day, to raise awareness about a dark part of Canada’s history when many Indigenous children were subjected to abuse.  

To recognize the day, organizers encourage participants to wear an orange shirt, a symbol from B.C. residential school survivor Phyllis Webstad who as a child was stripped of her own clothing and her shiny new orange shirt when she started residential school. 

Elder Ethel Stone who is part of the Elders’ Council for Living Sky School Division is also a survivor. 

“It is our history as First Nation People,” she said. “That’s important to us. Knowing why we are the way we are, and what happened to us to get us there.”

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She said Indigenous children were robbed of their parents, their culture and their language in residential schools, as well as their “spiritual concept of life.”

A commemorative walk will take place Friday at 11:30 a.m. starting at Chapel Gallery, after a prayer ceremony at the site of the former Battleford Industrial School at 11 a.m. 

The walk will be followed by a noon lunch with guest speakers at the United Church.

Eleanore Sunchild and the Building Bridges Committee, a sponsor, are organizing the event. Supporters of Indian Residential School survivors have also assisted in sponsoring the event. 

Local schools are also planning events to recognize survivors.  

To learn more, visit: www.orangeshirtday.org.
 

angela.brown@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @battlefordsNOW