National Day for Truth and Reconciliation: Here’s How You Can Spend It

spend September 30 — and the place to purchase an orange shirt.

Content material warning: This story discusses residential colleges and violence towards Indigenous individuals. Canada’s Residential Faculty Survivors and Household Disaster Line is out there 24 hours a day at 1-866-925-4419.

This text was initially revealed on September 29, 2021 and has been up to date.

In 1973, a six-year-old Phyllis Webstad was getting ready for her first day at St. Joseph’s Mission Residential Faculty in British Columbia. In anticipation of the massive day, her grandmother took to purchase a brand new outfit. She picked out a vibrant, shiny orange shirt, which matched the joy she felt to be going to high school. However when she arrived on the Mission, she was stripped of her personal garments and her orange shirt was taken from her, by no means to be seen once more.

Webstad, a Northern Secwpemc (Shuswap) from the Stswecem’c Xgat’tem First Nation, is considered one of many survivors of Canada’s residential college system. In 2013, she based Orange Shirt Day, acknowledged on September 30, as a method of acknowledging the traumatic generational influence of residential colleges on Indigenous communities. “The color orange has at all times jogged my memory of that and the way my emotions didn’t matter, how nobody cared and the way I felt like I used to be price nothing,” Webstad writes on the Orange Shirt Day website. “All of us little youngsters had been crying and nobody cared.”

In June 2021, the federal authorities introduced that September 30 would additionally mark the primary annual National Day for Truth and Reconciliation. The brand new federal statutory vacation is supposed to acknowledge the impacts of residential colleges on Indigenous communities and households. Over the previous few months, hundreds of remains were found on the grounds of former residential colleges, the place Indigenous youngsters had been forcibly despatched between the 1870s and Nineteen Nineties to be violently assimilated into colonial Canadian tradition. It’s estimated that thousands of children died at these government-sponsored spiritual colleges.

The Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) was launched in 2015, and has 94 calls to motion — Nationwide Day for Reality and Reconciliation is a direct response to name to motion 80, which known as for a federal statutory day to commemorate the legacy of residential colleges. There are many ways in which non-Indigenous individuals can assist Indigenous communities on September 30, says Fallon Farinacci, a Pink River Métis and therapeutic advocate. For starters, educate your self and talk about the historical past with the individuals in your personal life. “[Non-Indigenous people] can overview the calls to motion. And for a easy step, perhaps commit themselves to at least one that they will implement in their very own life, or that they will deliver to their office, or to their household,” she says.

“I used to be advised a very long time in the past that the largest change occurs across the dinner desk, the conversations which are had there are then introduced out locally. Having these moments of reality with your loved ones is certainly key to standing in solidarity with Indigenous people, and for every particular person particular person to do one thing that day to additional educate themselves on the reality.”

Farinacci provides that whereas this nationwide recognition is a step in the correct course, there’s nonetheless work to do. As a result of the vacation is federal, there’s a disconnect with some provinces that haven’t acknowledged September 30 as a vacation. Farinacci wished to spend the day together with her children and her group discussing this historical past, however as a result of her son’s college board didn’t acknowledge the vacation, he doesn’t have the time off. Farinacci lives in Ontario, which is considered one of many provinces that are not recognizing September 30 as a statutory holiday, along with Alberta, Saskatchewan, Québec, New Brunswick and Yukon. Manitoba, Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island will probably be formally recognizing September 30 as a statutory vacation, whereas British Columbia and Newfoundland and Labrador are commemorating the day, however not as a statutory vacation for all sectors.

“I’ve an Indigenous pal who needed to take the time off work in order that she could possibly be with household. She shouldn’t need to take a vacation for it,” she provides. “I feel that there’s loads of work to be accomplished to make sure that subsequent yr, it’s the day that it’s meant to truly be: a day to take a seat and mirror, and only a second for households to come back collectively.”

Should you do have the time off and are non-Indigenous, use it to teach your self, says Farinacci. There are many gatherings, occasions and digital workshops happening, and Orange Shirt Day has supplied a rising list of events happening throughout the nation on September 30. The Gord Downie & Chanie Wenjack Fund, an Indigenous-led group, has additionally provided a list of activities and educational resources to participate in on Nationwide Day for Reality and Reconciliation. Maintain house for Indigenous voices, however don’t count on or ask Indigenous individuals to teach you on the historical past of residential colleges, Farinacci provides.

Sporting an orange shirt is one other easy option to stand in solidarity with Indigenous communities on September 30, however the shirts are at present in excessive demand and arduous to search out. Should you can’t get an orange shirt from an Indigenous vendor, Indigenous advocates are asking that Canadians don’t resort to purchasing from large-scale retailers, who are actually promoting orange shirts.

“It’s actually unlucky that you’ve got huge field firms which are [mass producing and selling] the orange shirts,” says Farinacci. Indigenous advocate group Toronto Indigenous Harm Reduction states that by promoting orange shirts, non-Indigenous companies are lacking the purpose of Orange Shirt Day, which is to assist Indigenous individuals. Should you can’t get your arms on an orange shirt, contemplate as a substitute donating on to an Indigenous trigger, just like the Indian Residential School Survivors Society, and carrying one thing second-hand.

On Instagram, Farinacci reached out to her community to compile a listing of Indigenous-owned companies (or respected organizations who’re donating all of their income to Indigenous causes) which have shirts and different gadgets accessible for buy on September 30. They’re listed beneath. Shirts are in excessive demand and could also be offered out or take weeks to ship. To purchase orange shirts past September 30, Farinacci has an Instagram Tales spotlight known as “buy orange tees” the place she’s linked companies that regularly promote orange shirts.

Indigenous Nations Apparel (Ships throughout Canada)

Toronto Indigenous Harm Reduction (Situated in Toronto, Ontario)

Kanata Trade Co. (Ships throughout Canada)

Wolf Energy (Situated in Niagara, Ontario)

Mino Ode Kwe Beadwork (Ships throughout Canada)

Kwe Kreations (Ships throughout Canada)

Icky’s Variety (Situated in Six Nations, Ontario)

Toronto Council Fire (Situated in Toronto, Ontario)

The Selkirk Friendship Centre (Situated in Selkirk, Manitoba)