Orange Shirt Day founder and ambassador Phyllis Webstad remains humbled and honoured her story and her familyB次元官网网址檚 story continue to be the vehicle for change across Canada.
In 2013 she first shared her residential school experience during a panel discussion at a professional development day hosted by School District 27 in Williams Lake, recalling as a six-year-old child how her new orange shirt her grandmother bought for her for her first day of school was taken away by staff of St. Joseph Mission Residential School.
B次元官网网址淚 didnB次元官网网址檛 understand why they wouldnB次元官网网址檛 give it back to me, it was mine. The colour orange has always reminded me of that and how my feelings didnB次元官网网址檛 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.B次元官网网址�
This year, 2022, is actually the 10th Orange Shirt Day, she said.
B次元官网网址淲hen it first started it was originally for the Cariboo Chilcotin area in Williams Lake to keep the conversation happening once a year. It hit Facebook and it went viral. Now we are having this year the second National Day for Truth and Reconciliation.B次元官网网址�
ItB次元官网网址檚 amazing how it has grown, she added.
B次元官网网址淔rom the very first year I have always said this whole movement as IB次元官网网址檝e heard it called is divinely guided, that something else is at play. The ancestors, the children, are the ones to credit for everything that is happening. For whatever reason my story was chosen and I just continue to do my best to be there, to speak and do what I have to do.B次元官网网址�
Webstad and a delegation will be in Niagara Falls on National Day for Truth and Reconciliation, Sept. 30 to see the falls turn orange in recognition of Truth and Reconciliation.
B次元官网网址淔rom 8 until 11 p.m. for 15 minutes on the hour the falls will be orange. One minute equals 10,000 children and the 15 minutes equals 150,00 children that were taken from their homes and their families across Canada,B次元官网网址� Webstad told Black Press Media.
This year Webstad is also asking survivors and their families, and people who know survivors, to go out on Mother Earth on Sept. 30 and say the names of survivors out loud.
B次元官网网址淭hat way all 150,000 names are being verbalized across Canada on that one day.B次元官网网址�
She is hoping this will happen every year as it was something she thought about a few years ago but had not done anything about it yet.
If people have to stand on a balcony because thatB次元官网网址檚 there only choice, then thatB次元官网网址檚 OK too, but her preference is to have people standing on the ground.
In her own family there are 14 survivors so they will go outside and say the names of those who are still alive as well as the family members who have died.
B次元官网网址淚tB次元官网网址檚 a way to honour all survivors.B次元官网网址�
Webstad said Sept. 30 in Niagara Falls will begin with a sunrise ceremony at 7:13 a.m. followed by another ceremony from 10 a.m. to noon.
While in Ontario Webstad will be speaking at Niagara College, Brock University, Rotary, and at a matinee and evening event with the local Catholic District School Board.
When she speaks in front of groups, Webstad often says B次元官网网址渓ife can be understood backward but must be lived forward.B次元官网网址�
During one of her presentations, she was showing a photograph of her family on the screen and she realized something.
B次元官网网址淟ooking at my son, my five grandchildren, his wife, my mom, I realized for the first time in four generations children in my family are living under the same roof as their mother and their father.B次元官网网址�
Webstad, her mom, her grandmother and her son did not have that.
B次元官网网址淭hat may not seem like much to some people but it is huge. The family unit is back together again after four generations and what a change that is going to make in my grandchildren.B次元官网网址�
Quoting Murray Sinclair, she added B次元官网网址渢hey will grow up to be who they were meant to be.B次元官网网址�
B次元官网网址淚 can witness that already in my grandchildren. One of them is six years old and what a character. Nothing gets past him. He speaks up and says what he feels. Traits that survivors did not get to have. When heB次元官网网址檚 sad, lonely, tired or angry, his parents tend to him and help him through it.B次元官网网址�
Looking to the future sheB次元官网网址檚 excited to witness the progress and change of her grandchildren because they are being raised by their parents under the same roof.
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monica.lamb-yorski@wltribune.com
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