ORANGE HELPS HEAL

Day honours residential school survivors

Imagine that whenever you saw the colour orange it made you feel as if you didn’t matter, as if you were worthless and no one cared about you.

This is how Phyllis (Jack) Webstad felt ever since her first day at St. Joseph Mission residential school in B.C. in 1973, when her brand new orange shirt was taken away, along with the rest of her clothes.

Forty years later, the Orange Shirt Day movement was born in B.C. as a way to commemorate the residential school experience and honour survivors like Webstad and their families.

In 2016, the Saskatchewan School Boards Association passed a resolution to request the Saskatchewan government officially recognize Orange Shirt Day every Sept. 30.

On Friday afternoon, the symbolic colour evident all over Regina as events took place in parks, schools, and workplaces across the city and people of all ages donned their own orange shirts.

“I’m wearing an orange shirt today to not only represent Street Culture, but ... every single person who was involved in residential schools over the years and show my support for reconciliation,” said Jade Koch with the Street Culture Project at an event in Victoria Park.

“Together, when people show up and they stand for making a change, it shows that we are progressing and every day it’s one step closer to being a society where we don’t see those boundaries any more,” she said.

PHOTOS: TROY FLEECE Ecole Elsie Mironuck Community School students sport bright shirts on a walk Friday for Orange Shirt Day, one of several events held around the city to mark the day.

There are many support poles and angles to reckon with while raising a teepee. These students were taking part in the Glen Anaquod Memorial Tipi Raising Competition on Friday.

Plenty of people were wearing orange in downtown Regina on Friday as part of Orange Shirt Day, an event to mark reconciliation and healing for survivors of residential schools.

Skies were clear Friday at the Glen Anaquod Memorial Tipi Raising Competition.

Students admire their handiwork after erecting a teepee on the University of Regina campus.