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Orange Shirt Day: Canadian Kids Remember Our Terrible History

The last residential school didn't close until 1996.
Isabelle Khoo

Every year on Sept. 30, Canadians wear orange to honour survivors of residential schools.

These facilities, which operated from the 1880s to 1996, were an attempt by the government and churches to assimilate First Nations, Inuit and Metis children into Euro-Canadian culture. Essentially, they were designed to “take the Indian out of the child.”

In 1973, six-year-old Phyllis Webstad excitedly wore an orange shirt on her first day of residential school. Unfortunately, the shirt was quickly taken from her and she was told not to speak her language.

At that time, Webstad didn’t understand why she was being treated this way. "What I didn’t have in school is learning about the history [of residential schools]," she told Global News.

Since then, the colour orange has held special significance for Webstad, who launched Orange Shirt Day in 2013 to raise awareness of Canada’s history of residential schools.

This year, kids across the country joined together in support. In these Instagram photos, Canadian kids remind just how important this day truly is.




















Also on HuffPost

Residential Schools: A Photo History
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Inuit children who lived too far away and had to stay at school during the summer at the Anglican Mission School in Aklavik, N.W.T. in 1941. (credit:Library and Archives Canada)
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The blackboard on the left reads: "Thou Shalt Not Tell Lies." Cree students at the Anglican-run Lac la Ronge Mission School in Saskatchewan in 1945. (credit:Library and Archives Canada)
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Sisters of the Soeurs du Sacré-Coeur d'Ottawa and students on the steps of the school on the Pukatawagan Reserve in Manitoba in 1960. (credit:Library and Archives Canada)
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La Tuque Residential School's hockey team at a tournament held during the Quebec Winter Carnival in 1967. (credit:Library and Archives Canada)
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Canada's first and only Indian Air Cadet Unit, "No. 610" in 1956. The boys are from the Roman Catholic-run Williams Lake, B.C., Residential School. (credit:Library and Archives Canada)
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Chemistry class at Kamloop's Residential School in 1959 (credit:Library and Archives Canada)
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Students play pool at the Norway House Residential School in Manitoba in 1960. (credit:Library and Archives Canada)
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Students at a dormitory of the Shingwauk Residential School in Ontario in 1960 (credit:Library and Archives Canada)
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The carpentry shop at a Kamloops, B.C., residential school in the late 1950s. (credit:Library and Archives Canada)
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Children hold letters that spell "Goodbye" at the Fort Simpson, N.W.T, Residential School in 1922. (credit:Library and Archives Canada)
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Undated photo of a group of students and parents from the Saddle Lake Reserve in Alberta en route to the Methodist-operated Red Deer Industrial School. (credit:Library and Archives Canada)
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St-Michael's Residential School in 1959 (credit:Library and Archives Canada)
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Shingle Point Residential School & Home For Boys, Mackenzie District, N.W.T. in 1930. (credit:Library and Archives Canada)
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Students from the residential school in Moose Factory Island in Ontario attend a service at St. Thomas Anglican Church in 1946. (credit:Library and Archives Canada)
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Aboriginal children at the Roman Catholic-run Fort Providence Residential Mission School in the Northwest Territories in 1929. (credit:Library and Archives Canada)
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An undated photo of a dog team carrying a hay load near the residential school at Fort Resolution, N.W.T. (credit:Library and Archives Canada)
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Undated photo of children cutting logs at the residential school in Fort Resolution, N.W.T. (credit:Library and Archives Canada)
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Undated photo of boys cutting hay at the residential school in Duck Lake, Sask. (credit:Library and Archives Canada)
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An undated photos of aboriginal students attending the Metlakatla, B.C., Residential School. (credit:Library and Archives Canada)
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Two Métis children with an Inuit child at the All Saints Residential School, in Shingle Point, Yukon, in 1930. (credit:Library and Archives Canada)
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Students at the Onion Lake Catholic Residential School in 1950. (credit:Library and Archives Canada)
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Adeline Raciette amd Emily Bone study on the lawn of the Assiniboia Residential School in Manitoba in 1958. (credit:Library and Archives Canada)
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Students share dish-washing chores at Portage La Prairie Residential School in Manitoba in 1950. (credit:Library and Archives Canada)
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Fort Qu'Appelle Industrial School in Saskatchewan in 1884. (credit:Library and Archives Canada)
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Children at the Fort Resolution, N.W.T., residential school in 1928. (credit:Library and Archives Canada)
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The Alert Bay Mission School in British Columbia in 1885. (credit:Library and Archives Canada)

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