Orange Shirt Day

Monday, September 30th is the annual National Day for Truth and Reconciliation in Canada, a day for reflecting on the impacts and outcomes of colonization on the Indigenous Peoples of these lands.

It is also widely known as Orange Shirt Day because of a community based movement to publicize Phyllis Webstad’s experiences as a residential school survivor.

We invite you to consider what you can do in your everyday life to actively contribute to healing and repair. Some ideas and suggestions are listed below:

• Read books by Indigenous authors (Link: cbc.ca)
• Watch an Indigenous made film (Link: nfb.ca)
• Take a class (Link: ualberta.ca)
• Find out whose lands you live on and then learn their history (Link: native-land.ca)
• Join a group and learn together. In our region we have the T’Sou-ke Truth for Reconciliation Group. For more information you can email [email protected]
• There are a number of national and regional services and groups you could choose to support. Here a few suggestions:
  • Indian Residential School Survivors Society (Link: irsss.ca)
  • Support Network for Indigenous Women & Women of Colour (Link: sniwwoc.ca)
  • Indigenous Sports, Physical Activity & Recreation Council (Link: isparc.ca)
  • PEPAKEṈ HÁUTW̱ Foundation for Land Based Education (Link: pepakenhautw.com)
  • InidigiNews (Link: indiginews.com)

Every Child Matters. It is important to us to commemorate the residential school experience, witness, and honour the healing journey of the Survivors and their families, and support Reconciliation efforts as best we can. We forward 100% of the net profit from the sales of orange t-shirts and hoodies to the Orange Shirt Society. To make a purchase, you can visit our shop.

Some of the other ways Sea to Tree honours repair and reconciliation are: 

• Our participation in the Victoria Native Friendship Centre’s annual Small Business Pledge Program.
• Commissioning Coast Salish artist Jordanna George to create an Indigenized version of our logo.
• Commissioning T’Sou-ke Nation artist Shelly Davies to create a piece of art for our office which represents a territorial acknowledgement. More on Shelly here.