For the past several weeks our Teacher Librarian Mrs. Cole and Alert Bay School staff have been sharing the book The Orange Shirt Story by Author Phyllis Webstad with students at our school.
Our school wanted to really honour the day this year, and we embarked on a school-wide art project of painting our own Orange Shirts. Through this process we listened to stories of the children, the families and the communities impacted by residential schools.
Today at school we recognized Orange Shirt Day.
Peyton in grade six feels that, “We can do our part and inspire others to participate in Orange Shirt Day, because we want others to know and recognize how badly our people were treated back then. We need to continue to tell the stories and help others embrace the love from others and to begin healing.”
Jason from Grade Six thinks its really important to hear the stories because he says, “You can feel the emotion in our people’s voices of how they were treated back then. Children were taken from their families and it stopped the teachings of our Language and Culture. We are just starting to get our Culture back”.
Meadow from Grade Six would like to ask all schools across Canada to recognize Orange Shirt Day. “It’s important to recognize this day to know what happened in the past and begin to create a different future for the youth of our Country”.
