Guest post by Kenzie Littlelight, Communications and Project Assistant
On September 22, UBC Learning Circle and the First Nations House of Learning (FNHL) hosted an online webinar for Orange Shirt Day which takes place annually on September 30. Orange Shirt Day honours Survivors of residential schools and reminds everyone that every child matters.
The event was presented by speaker and author Phyllis Webstad, who is from the Stswecem’c Xgat’tem First Nation and has a mixed Secwepemc and Irish/French heritage.
During the webinar, Phyllis courageously shared her experience of attending St. Joseph’s Mission School and how her story became the foundation for Orange Shirt Day.
When participants wear an orange shirt, it symbolizes Phyllis’s story of having her brand-new orange shirt taken away by the nuns on her first day of residential school. She remembered feeling like she didn’t matter and spoke of the effects residential school had on four generations of her family.
Through Orange Shirt Day, Phyllis hopes her work will fill in the gaps of better understanding residential schools for non-Indigenous people. Orange Shirt Day gives an opportunity to acknowledge countless stories like Phyllis’ and helps create a national dialogue around residential schools and the impacts that came from them.
The webinar was not recorded out of respect for Phyllis and her story.