Orange Shirt Day has become a national movement in Canada and is now called National Day for Truth and Reconciliation. It is a day that invites Indigenous and non-Indigenous people to come together in the spirit of hope and reconciliation to honour former residential school students, their families and communities.
On September 30th every year, National Day for Truth and Reconciliation is a moment to pause and consider the impacts of the policies and actions of the Government of Canada and the churches that operated the schools.
Orange Shirt Day began in Williams Lake, BC in 2013 at the St. Joseph Mission residential school commemoration event at which survivor Phyllis Webstad told the story of her shiny new orange shirt taken away from her on her first day of school at the Mission.
National Day for Truth and Reconciliation occurs in early Fall, specifically on September 30th, because this is the time of year when children were removed from their families and forced to attend residential schools. The day inspires Canadians to take part in anti-racism and anti-bullying initiatives at school and work.
Orange Shirt Day was inspired by the personal story of Phyllis Webstad.
To learn more about Phyllis, read her story in her own words.
You can also learn more in this video and listen to this radio interview.
As Long As the Rivers Flow by 
I Am Not a Number by 
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Secret Path by 
Shi-Shi-Etko by 
Stolen Words by 
Sugar Falls by 
When I Was Eight by 
When We Were Alone by 
The day honours the lost children and Survivors of residential schools, their families and communities. Public commemoration of the tragic and painful history and ongoing impacts of residential schools is a vital component of the reconciliation process.
The creation of this federal statutory holiday was through legislative amendments made by Parliament on June 3, 2021.
Begin your learning journey today on the path towards truth and reconciliation.
Indian residential schools were a network of boarding schools for Indigenous peoples, funded by the Canadian government's Department of Indian Affairs and operated and administered by Christian churches.
Using the familiar idea of the school system, rather than education, the purpose of the residential school network was a systemic effort to remove Indigenous children from the influence of their own culture and to force assimilation into the dominant Canadian culture.
Over the course of the system's more than hundred-year existence, about 30 percent of Indigenous children (around 150,000) were placed in residential schools nationally. During the residential school era it is estimated that 6,000 children died while attending these schools. There are approximately 80,000 survivors of these schools alive today.
Indian residential schools operated across Canada between 1831 and 1996. The earliest recognized and longest running residential school was the Mohawk Institute in Brantford, Ontario (1831–1962). The last federally run residential school to close was Gordon’s School in Punnichy, Saskatchewan, which closed in 1996.
It wasn't until the release in 2015 of the report of Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada and its 94 calls for action for reconciliation that the details of this brutal and horrifying part of Canada’s history began to be recognized by Canadians. The TRC report concluded that the residential school system amounted to cultural genocide.
Orange Shirt Day focuses our attention on this shameful historical legacy, but perhaps even more importantly, it offers an opportunity to celebrate the resilience and bravery of the survivors and their families. By telling their stories and offering the generosity of a path to reconciliation, a better future is offered for all Canadians.
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Orange Shirt Day by 
Residential Schools: With the Words and Images of Survivors by 
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They Called Me Number One by 
Up Ghost River by