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Sept 30 is Orange Shirt Day & National Day for Truth & Reconciliation

Starting a Conversation With Your Children About Residential Schools

By Kim Soderberg McRae, Macaroni Kid Chestermere, with files from Carmen Kaethler, Macaroni Kid Winnipeg September 25, 2023

The ‘orange shirt’ in Orange Shirt Day refers to the new shirt that Phyllis Webstad was given by her grandmother for her first day of school at St. Joseph’s Mission residential school in British Columbia. 

When Phyllis got to school, they took away her clothes, including her new shirt. It was never returned.

To Phyllis, the colour orange has always reminded her of her experiences at residential school and, as she has said, “how my feelings didn’t matter, how no one cared and I felt like I was worth nothing. All of us little children were crying and no one cared.” 

September 30, 2023, also marks National Day for Truth and Reconciliation. This day honours the lost children and Survivors of residential schools, their families and communities. Public commemoration of the tragic and painful history and ongoing impacts of residential schools is a vital component of the reconciliation process.

The creation of this federal statutory holiday was through legislative amendments made by Parliament. On June 3, 2021, Bill C-5, An Act to amend the Bills of Exchange Act, the Interpretation Act and the Canada Labour Code (National Day for Truth and Reconciliation) received Royal Assent.

What Can You Do?

Donate

Indian Residential School Survivors Society

Orange Shirt Day Society

Gord Downie & Chanie Wenjack Fund

If you would donate, please make sure to do your research. Some companies sell orange shirts for Orange Shirt Day for profit, and funds do not go back to the organizations in need. 


Movies, Documentaries and Series

Head over to CBC Gem (CBC's free streaming service) where they did a round-up back in June for National Indigenous History month of movies, documentaries and series highlighting the history, heritage and diversity of Indigenous people in Canada. Movies like Rhymes for Young Ghouls are very impactful (BUT not appropriate for young viewers! check the rating before sitting down with your kids).





Animated Stories (watch first to see if they are appropriate to share with your child)

When We Alone:


When We Were Alone: pronunciations for Cree words


I Am Not A Number


Stolen Words


Consider picking up a book on the subject to read with your kids. Here are a few suggestions you can find through the Chestermere Public Library and TRAC for youth (links to the library's catalogue is in the title of the books). Most of these books are also available through your favourite book retailer. 


by Phyllis Webstad 

"When Phyllis Webstad (nee Jack) turned six, she went to the residential school for the first time. On her first day at school, she wore a shiny orange shirt that her Granny had bought for her, but when she got to the school, it was taken away from her and never returned. This is the true story of Phyllis and her orange shirt. It is also the story of Orange Shirt Day (an important day of remembrance for First Nations and non First Nations Canadians)."






Stolen Words
by Melanie Florence

"This picture book explores the intergenerational impact of Canada's residential school system that separated Indigenous children from their families. The story recognizes the pain of those whose culture and language were taken from them, how that pain is passed down and shared through generations, and how healing can also be shared. Stolen Words captures the beautiful, healing relationship between a little girl and her grandfather. When she asks him how to say something in his language - Cree - her grandpa admits that his words were stolen from him when he was a boy. The little girl then sets out to help her grandfather regain his language."--Publisher's description.






Shi-shi-etko
by Nicola I. Campbell

"In just four days young Shi-shi-etko will have to leave her family and all that she knows to attend residential school.

She spends her last days at home treasuring the beauty of her world -- the dancing sunlight, the tall grass, each shiny rock, the tadpoles in the creek, her grandfather's paddle song. Her mother, father and grandmother, each in turn, share valuable teachings that they want her to remember. And so Shi-shi-etko carefully gathers her memories for safekeeping.

Richly hued illustrations complement this gently moving and poetic account of a child who finds solace all around her, even though she is on the verge of great loss -- a loss that native people have endured for generations because of the residential schools system."

Other stories by author on subject include: 
"Shin-chi's canoe"





Fatty legs: A True Story
by Christy Jordan-Fenton

"The beloved story of an Inuvialuit girl standing up to the bullies of residential school, updated for a new generation of readers.

Margaret Olemaun Pokiak-Fenton's powerful story of a residential school in the far North has been reissued to commemorate the memoir's 10th anniversary with updates to the text, reflections on the book's impact, and a bonus chapter from the acclaimed follow-up, A Stranger at Home. New content includes a foreword from Dr. Debbie Reese, noted Indigenous scholar and founder of American Indians in Children's Literature, while Christy Jordan-Fenton, mother of Margaret's grandchildren and a key player in helping Margaret share her stories, discusses the impact of the book in a new preface."

Other stories by author on subject include: 
"Not my girl", "When I was eight", "A stranger at home : a true story"





When We Were Alone
by David Robertson

"When a young girl helps tend to her grandmother's garden, she begins to notice things that make her curious. Why does her grandmother have long, braided hair and beautifully colored clothing? Why does she speak another language and spend so much time with her family? As she asks her grandmother about these things, she is told about life in a residential school a long time ago, where all of these things were taken away. When We Were Alone is a story about a difficult time in history, and, ultimately, one of empowerment and strength."

Other stories by author on subject include: 
"Betty: the Helen Betty Osborne story", "The pact", "Sugar Falls: a residential school story"





These Are My Words: The Residential School Diary of Violet Pesheens
by Ruby Slipperjack

"Twelve-year-old Violet Pesheens is taken away to Residential School in 1966. The diary recounts her experiences of travelling there, the first day, and first months, focusing on the everyday life she experiences--the school routine, battles with Cree girls, being quarantined over Christmas, getting home at Easter and reuniting with her family. When the time comes to gather at the train station for the trip back to the residential school, her mother looks her in the eye and asks, "Do you want to go back, or come with us to the trapline?" Violet knows the choice she must make."--Provided by publisher.






No Time to Say Goodbye: Children's Stories of Kuper Island Residential School
by Sylvia Olsen

"No Time to Say Goodbye is a fictional account of five children sent to aboriginal boarding school, based on the recollections of a number of Tsartlip First Nations people. These unforgettable children are taken by government agents from Tsartlip Day School to live at Kuper Island Residential School. The five are isolated on the small island and life becomes regimented by the strict school routine. They experience the pain of homesickness and confusion while trying to adjust to a world completely different from their own. Their lives are no longer organized by fishing, hunting and family, but by bells, line-ups and chores. In spite of the harsh realities of the residential school, the children find adventure in escape, challenge in competition, and camaraderie with their fellow students. Sometimes sad, sometimes funny, always engrossing, No Time to Say Goodbye is a story that readers of all ages won't soon forget."






The journey forward: novellas on reconciliation.
by Monique Gray Smith

"Lucy and Lola are 11-year-old twins who are heading to Gabriola Island, BC, to spend the summer with their Kookum (grandmother) while their mother studies for the bar exam. During their time with Kookum, the girls begin to learn about her experiences in being sent — and having to send their mother — to Residential school. Ultimately, they discover what it means to be intergenerational survivors"--Publisher's website.

"This is the story of 12-year-old Dene Cho, who is angry that his people are losing their language, traditions, and ways of being. Elder Snowbird is there to answer some of Dene Cho’s questions, and to share their history including the impact Residential schools continue to have on their people. It is through this conversation with Snowbird that Dene Cho begins to find himself, and begins to realize that understanding the past can ultimately change the future"--Publisher's website.





I am not a number
by Jenny Kay Dupuis

"A picture book based on a true story about a young First Nations girl who was sent to a residential school. When eight-year-old Irene is removed from her First Nations family to live in a residential school she is confused, frightened, and terribly homesick. She tries to remember who she is and where she came from despite the efforts of the nuns to force her to do otherwise. Based on the life of Jenny Kay Dupuis' own grandmother, I Am Not a Number brings a terrible part of Canada's history to light in a way that children can learn from and relate to"--Provided by publisher.





The Boy Who Walked Backwards
by Ben Sures

"A story about a young Ojibway boy and his traditional upbringing on Serpent River First Nation. Leo's life turns to darkness when forced to attend residential school. Back home for Christmas, Leo uses inspiration from an Ojibway childhood game to remain with his loving family."




Indian Horse
By Richard Wagamese

"Saul Indian Horse has hit bottom. His last binge almost killed him, and now he’s a reluctant resident in a treatment centre for alcoholics, surrounded by people he’s sure will never understand him. But Saul wants peace, and he grudgingly comes to see that he’ll find it only through telling his story. With him, readers embark on a journey back through the life he’s led as a northern Ojibway, with all its joys and sorrows."




The Train
By Jodie Callaghan

"Ashley meets her great-uncle by the old train tracks near their community in Nova Scotia. When she sees his sadness, he shares with her the history of those tracks. Uncle tells her that during his childhood the train would bring their community supplies, but there came a day when the train took away with it something much more important. One day he and the other children from the reserve were taken aboard and transported to residential school, where their lives were changed forever. They weren't allowed to speak Mi''gmaq and were punished if they did. Uncle tells her he tried not to be noticed, like a little mouse, and how hard it was not to have the love and hugs and comfort of family. He also tells Ashley how happy she and her sister make him. They are what give him hope. Ashley promises to wait with her uncle as he sits by the tracks, waiting for what was taken from their people to come back to them."


More reading (these all vary in age and reading level):



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