St. Michael students learn meaning of Orange Shirt Day

Truth and Reconciliation is much more than a one-day event at St. Michael Catholic Elementary School in Virgil, says principal Emma Fera-Massi. 

“As Christians,” she tells The Local, “reconciliation is a sacrament that we engage in regularly. Understanding what this word means on Orange Shirt Day and throughout the year is an important part of our Catholic faith.”

St. Michael students in all grades are participating in a week full of activities and exercises designed to cultivate that understanding as September 30 approaches.

As at many schools across the country, Phyllis Webstad’s story is at the centre of many of those learning activities. 

Webstad, a Northern Secwpemc (Shuswap) from the Stswecem’c Xgat’tem First Nation (Canoe Creek Indian Band) in Western Canada, is the founder and ambassador of the Orange Shirt Society.  

Taken from her family at the age of six, Phyllis was sent to the St. Joseph’s Mission Residential School, where she was stripped of her beloved orange shirt and made to feel that she didn’t matter. Her own healing journey, begun at age 27, has been a focal point of Orange Shirt Day.

On Friday afternoon, the primary students at St. Michael will be watching Every Child Matters: Residential School Survivor Phyllis Webstad. Following the video, they will be creating a giant ‘T-shirt’ out of poster board and writing on it how each student should feel at school. Then they will be cutting out feather shapes, tinting them and attaching them to the ‘T-shirt’. 

In other classes, songs, books and videos will be used to help students reflect on what reconciliation means to them, while some will be creating dot art projects following the style used by Canada’s Metis peoples. 

The Niagara Catholic District School Board’s website says the board acknowledges the importance of recognizing Orange Shirt Day in schools and other sites.

“This grassroots day sheds important light on the tragedy of the residential school system in Canada and has been adopted by the federal government as the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation”, says the site.

“This part of Canadian history is not a proud one,” Fera-Massi adds, “but it is one that must be remembered and discussed.”