Orange Shirt Day to honour residential school survivors

Orange Shirt Day is coming up on Friday. It is meant to honour Indigenous peoples who were taken from their homes and forced into residential schools across Canada. It is also a time to showcase the stories and healing of families who are survivors of the schools. Marilyn Contois, a Library Technician from Indigenous Services at the Lethbridge Public Library say the day stems from a residential school survivor named Phyllis Webstad.

“She shared her story on how when she went to a residential school she wore an orange shirt that her grandmother bought her. That was taken away from her and she had to wear a uniform. That orange shirt meant a lot to her and so in memory- in honour of that it became a day and a way to honour what happened to her. It’s all across Canada now. Everybody’s wearing the orange shirt on that day.”

National Day For Truth and Reconciliation takes place on Friday with a number of events in Lethbridge happening during the week.

Micah Quinn

After graduating from Mount Royal University in Calgary with a Broadcasting Diploma, Micah made the trek down to Lethbridge to work for Bridge City News. He has previously worked at City TV Calgary on the Breakfast Television morning show. He looks forward to connecting with this community, and reaching a new audience. Micah has a passion for interviewing and finding out why people think the way they do. You’ll often find him pursuing local feature stories and hard news.

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