Today we recognized Orange Shirt Day at St. Jude’s Academy (Orange Shirt Day is officially recognized across Canada on September 30th each year). It was quite nice to look out at the sea of orange during morning announcements as we all stood together in the belief that EVERY CHILD MATTERS.
Orange Shirt Day was begun by a Residential School survivor who, as a child, was excited to wear a beautiful shiny orange shirt her grandmother made for her to her first day of school. At the school, however, they took her shirt and threw it away (Click here for her story). That shirt has come to symbolize how Residential Schools attempted to “throw away” the indigenous cultures of Canada and how we need to recognize this dark part of our Canadian history.
Today, we linked together our Orange “Every Child Matters” Chain because we are all linked together. We all contribute in our unique way. We are stronger together.
I read Stolen Words by Canadian author, Melanie Florence, to the visiting library classes and also got to visit some of the classrooms to read to them too.
The Library at St. Jude's Academy 