The first Orange Shirt Day was held in September 2013 and I distinctly remember reading about it on October 1st. I saw a post on Facebook and wondered why I hadn't heard about it earlier. I made a note to remember it the following year, even as my mind judged the lack of publicity over the event. I couldn't figure out why I hadn't heard about it before. I didn't understand it was just the beginning of a movement.
Since then I have commemorated Orange Shirt Day in my classroom, with our school, and as a division, though this year everything was done in the classroom. I am grateful I work in a division that actively prioritized Reconciliation some years ago, creating professional development opportunities for staff to promote a deeper understanding of Canada's one-sided history and the responsibilities we carry in our role as educators to acknowledge the past in order to understand the present and change the future. It is not just lip service when we teach, "We are all treaty people as long as the sun shines and the river flows."
Today in my classroom I see evidence of the ReconciliAction taking place in our schools. When I first began talking to students about Residential Schools and the cultural genocide which took place under the noses of Canadians for about 150 years few had previous knowledge. Some had begun their learning of Indigenous issues, but many had yet to learn about it in school, and I often reminded them that I hadn't learned about Residential Schools either, nor had most of Canadians.
My current 7th and 8th graders were in kindergarten when Orange Shirt Day commemorations began and are part of the first generation that knows nothing other than the fact that September 30th is Orange Shirt Day and it is a day we learn about and then notice at school. It is an important day.
When I asked my students in both my classes to recall when they first remember being part of Orange Shirt Day at school a few recalled memories from kindergarten and their early years, and by the time we got to grades 4 and 5, all who had been in school in Canada had participated in Orange Shirt Day at school. All my newcomers to Canada remember it as part of their learning during their first September at school in Canada. Orange Shirt Day has become part of school culture and it gives me hope.
Over the last couple of weeks as we discussed Orange Shirt Day students had so much prior knowledge to drawn on it allowed for a lot of rich discussion, which wasn't easy with masks on, which made it all the more remarkable. There were also many deep questions to explore as we watched videos, investigated websites, and read Phyllis Webstad's Orange Shirt Day story.
As a school, our students created a visual display, tying 6000 orange ribbons, each representing one child who did not survive Residential School, to the fence outside the building. In class, after sharing our ideas and charting some facts, students worked through the writing process to create a piece to share in a bulletin board display in our school and in our newsletter.
Featured are samples of Six Word Memoirs, Acrostics, Haikus, and free writes with some powerful messages. I know I have not been very descriptive with the process, but for today I am going to let their words speak for me.
If any teachers are interested in the assignment outline and accompanying assessment/reflection with a sharing aspect, feel free to email me.
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