Wear orange this Saturday to support the Every Child Matters movement

Every child matters

The District of Squamish is participating in Orange Shirt Day this Saturday, September 30 and residents are invited to wear an orange shirt on that day.

Wearing an orange shirt on September 30 is a way to acknowledge the harm the residential school system did to Indigenous children's self-esteem and well-being, and affirm a commitment that from now on, every child matters.

This annual reconciliation event started in 2013 in the Cariboo Chilcotin region by the community and survivors of the St. Joseph’s Mission Residential School in Williams Lake.

Grown from the story of one residential school survivor, Orange Shirt Day is becoming a national movement. Phyllis (Jack) Webstad went off to school at the hopeful age of six, wearing a brand new orange t-shirt her grandmother had scraped together the money for. On her first day of school, she was stripped of her clothes, and the special shirt was taken away, never to be returned. This was the first loss of many, and she has spent the rest of her life working through the trauma of her experiences.

The Squamish Lillooet Regional District (SLRD) has resolved to be a “region of reconciliation” and is supporting Orange Shirt Day. Enhancing relationships with aboriginal communities and First Nations was identified last year as a priority for the SLRD, reflected in the SLRD’s 2015-2018 Strategic Directions.Read more about this on the SLRD website.

September 27, 2017

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