National Day for Truth and Reconciliation
- Sep 30, 2025
- 2 min read
September 30th is National Day for Truth and Reconciliation, also known as Orange Shirt Day.
For over 100 years, the Residential School System in Canada operated by systematically taking Indigenous children from their families. The goal of these schools was to remove Indigenous children from their families, traditions, and cultures. The speaking of Indigenous languages and the practice of Indigenous traditions were strictly forbidden, resulting in ongoing harm for many generations.
The National Day for Truth and Reconciliation is a day to remember and honour the Indigenous children who were taken from their families by the Residential School System, as well as to recognize the lasting impacts of these schools on Indigenous families, culture, languages, and communities as a whole. It is also a day to reinvigorate commitments to the Truth and Reconciliation Calls to Action.
Orange Shirt Day was started in 2013 by Phyllis Webstad, who attended a residential school in 1973. When she arrived at the school, her new orange shirt was taken from her by school staff. Phyllis says that “The color 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.” Orange Shirt Day hopes to create discussion around stories like Phyllis’s and the lasting effects they have.
Learning about the injustices of the past and how they affect the present is paramount to the prevention of further injustices in the future. For more information on the Residential School System and its lasting effects on Indigenous communities, please see the resources below.
