Orange Shirts
"Orange Shirt Day 2017_219_2" by Thompson Rivers is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0.
The bodies of more than 4,100 children have been found in mass graves across North America at residential schools and more are continually being uncovered throughout 2021. These residential schools, mainly run by the American and Canadian governments in partnership with religious organizations, operated with the intention of assimilating First Nation peoples into society. Attendance at these residential schools (boarding schools within the USA) was mandatory and the culture of the First Nation children attending these schools were ripped away.
"Orange Shirt Day 2018" by BC Gov Photos is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0.
Organizations have risen up since then in order to uncover the truth of what occurred at these schools and to help the survivors. The Indian Residential School Survivors Society in British Columbia is one such organization. It was founded to help the First Nations people heal from the intergenerational trauma caused by the residential schools and endowed with a fund by the Canadian government.
Another such organization, and perhaps more well known, is the Orange Shirt Society and it’s subsequent Orange Shirt Day. A legacy project created by Esketemc Chief Fred Robbins (a former residential student), Orange Shirt Day occurs every September 3oth in order to commemorate and honor the healing journey of the survivors of the residential schools. The Orange Shirt Society is run through the donations of corporate sponsors and individual donors alike.
More organizations, charities, and petitions have sprung up throughout the years in order to heal the intergenerational trauma done by residential schools throughout North America. There is currently a petition running to continue searching residential schools and to start searching the first of these schools created in the USA in the state of Pennsylvania.
