The New School Shirt

September is an exciting time for most kids and their parents. For children, it’s back to school to show off their new clothes and reconnect with friends. For parents, it’s back to structure: bed times, school busses and bagged lunches.

For the Indigenous community of Canada, however, the back-to-school season can evoke different feelings. “I heard an Elder say that September is crying month,” said Phyllis Webstad.

Webstad remembers the excitement she had before her first day of school. Her grandmother scraped together what money she could and bought her a bright, shiny new orange shirt from the general store. She was very proud of that shirt, a pride that disappeared the moment she arrived at residential school.

“When I got to St. Joseph’s Mission Residential School, they stripped me, took away my clothes. I never saw my orange shirt again,” said Webstad, choking back tears. “All of us little children were crying and no one cared.”

Today, Webstad works as one of the leads on the Orange Shirt Day, a movement working towards national recognition aimed at building awareness within the education system around the dark legacy of residential schools. The idea behind the movement is simple and can be enacted by anyone anywhere. All it involves is donning an orange shirt on September 30, in recognition of the harm the residential school system did to Indigenous children’s sense of self-esteem and well-being, and affirming a commitment to ensure that from now on, every child matters.

And while the idea for Orange Shirt Day came from Webstad’s story, it’s a relatable experience. “For every residential school survivor and their families, something was taken away, it’s their story too,” said Webstad.

Webstad is Shuswap and hails from Williams Lake, BC. She first shared her story three years ago at a Truth and Reconciliation (TRC) event in her community. During the event, the chairperson of the TRC, Chief Justice Murray Sinclair, issued a challenge to all involved to continue with what they started.  

“A remarkable thing happened there, all levels of our community were involved in that first reconciliation event, though I’m not even sure we called it reconciliation back then,” said Joan Sorley, a local politician and a co-founder of Orange Shirt Day.

For Sorley, the day is about coming to terms with the dark aspects of Canada’s history and reconciling it for future generations. “As non-First Nations people are becoming aware of the history of residential schools, more and more they’re trying to do better. It will take generations to undo all the damage,” said Sorley. “But I believe it can and will be undone.”

Since that challenge, Orange Shirt Day has continued on with an “if you build it, they will come” mentality. Six volunteers run the organization, three of whom are committed to the national and international levels. Webstad herself spends about 3-4 hours a night working on Orange Shirt Day’s web presence in addition to logging a 40-hour work week. That combined with emotional labour of sharing her story takes its toll.

“By the end of October I’m drained,” said Webstad. “Sometimes I need to remind myself that I’m taking this negative experience and turning it into something positive. There’s good that will come out of this.”

 

In 2014, following the second Orange Shirt Day, Webstad was asked to speak to a group from the Indian Residential School Survivors Society (IRSSS). “I went to those Elders and told them, I don’t know if I can keep doing this,” Webstad recalled. “All the Elders put me in the middle of the gym and drummed around me. One by one, they came up, hugged me and said that I needed to keep going for them.”

These encounters are what drives her to continue, Webstad admitted. “Survivors often come to me at my day job and say ‘thank you for talking about your experience’ because they’ll never be able to share theirs.”

Even with the gratitude she receives from fellow survivors, Webstad isn’t sure she’ll ever be fully healed from the trauma. “I commend those who can be healed. I’d like to have a conversation with someone who thinks they’ve healed because I really want to hear about it,” she said.