Understanding Orange Shirt Day & First Nations Heritage
Lend your support to Orange Shirt Day as a tribute to First Nations children who suffered in residential schools. Learn about the resilient spirit of First Nations families and their rich cultural traditions.
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Orange Shirt Day! Every Child Matters!!! By: Patricia Miller
There are 15 Mikmaq and Wolastuk (Maliseet) communities in New Brunswick. Can you find the communities closest to you? Some students and staff at this school may live in one of those communities.
Special Message! First Nation people have always been friendly and just like you, they love their families, love to laugh and tell stories and work hard.
They also love to share. They love to share their drums, and their songs. They love to share their sacred medicines, their stories and culture. Image result for pabineau
Just like your families tell you how special you are and how your families share special times together, so do First Nation Families.
But a long time ago, some people said they could not tell their stories, or share their culture or speak their language. They had to go to special schools called residential schools and could not go home to see their families and share in all the wonderful things families do. Image result for residential schools This made the First Nation children think that they were not very wonderful and that they didn t have special hearts. This made the First Nation children very sad and hurt their hearts very much.
First Nation children are very smart. When they were away from their families, they tried to remember their families. They remembered how they were taught to speak their language and how special their culture and powwows were. These children kept those memories in their hearts.
Why Orange Shirts? Why Orange Shirts? There is a lady named Phyllis Webstad. When she was a little girl she went to a residential school. On her first day of school, she wore a brand new orange shirt. When she arrived at the school, Phyllis was given a different outfit and was not allowed to wear her orange shirt. Now we have a special day in September called Orange Shirt Day. This day helps us remember children like Phyllis who went to a residential school.
Background on Indian Residential Schools: This short film is about teaching the topic of Residential Schools to elementary school children. It is a simplified version that is age appropriate and does not give too much detail about what happened in those times (1:16). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NueIHENCckw
Now all those children have grown up and they are moms and dads, grandmas and grandpas, and aunties and uncles and they remember how special their parents told them they were. They are also telling their children how special they are. Learning about and sharing their culture is so important.
Now First Nation families get to show everyone what special people they are and share the love in their hearts, and their love for their families. They again get to laugh, to share stories and continue to work hard all throughout Canada. They love to share songs and drumming at powwows and they get to use the sacred medicines and teach everyone about their culture.
Every Child Matters!! We want all First Nation children and all children in the world to remember how wonderful they are and when they see an orange shirt they will remember. I hope that you will remember that Every Child Matters!
So when you are playing with your friends remember that they are special just like you and that you always treat people with kindness so that they smile and never have a sad heart again.
