A ceremony to recognize Orange Shirt Day in 100 Mile House is happening at the Lumberman’s Park ball fields on Sept. 29 at 1 p.m.
The annual event is being recognized in School District 27 on Friday, instead of the official Orange Shirt Day of Sept. 30.
Canim Lake Band Chief Mike Archie will welcome the crowd to the Secwepemc First Nations traditional territory with traditional openings and prayers.
Then a performance by Eliza Archie Memorial School Students, with other local school children in attendance, will be presented followed by speaker Mary Thomas, and drummer and singers Mike Retasket and Cheryl Chapman, who will talk about their personal experiences and family impacts resulting from incarceration in Indian Residential Schools.
A Friendship Dance with survivors will help wrap-up the recognition ceremony.
As a public event everyone is invited to attend, and wear any orange shirt if possible, to show respect for the survivors, many of whom are now elders.
Williams Lake residential school survivor Phyllis Webstad, by sharing her local story, prompted the theme of this day of recognition that has since been picked up around the world. This year, as Webstad will be speaking in Victoria on and about Orange Shirt Day, she is unable to attend the ceremonies in School District 27. Webstad spoke in front of the B.C. Legislature on Sept. 21 to share her story.
Related: B.C. Legislature shines spotlight on Orange Shirt Day
Jerome Beauchamp, director of Instruction and education with the school district, says Webstad gets requests from all across Canada to visit and speak, and has decided to alternate events year by year, the Cariboo-Chilcotin one year and other communities the next.
The day was started when Webstad explained, at a previous event how her and the other children at the St. Joseph’s Residential School near Williams Lake were trying to fight for their rights, but all of them felt like they “didn’t matter.”
When a new orange shirt was taken away on her first day, Webstad recalled crying when she asked for it back because “her granny bought it” for her to wear at her new school.
On Sept. 29, attending this local Orange Shirt Day event (or others) shows that “every child matters,” and helps recognize the travesties that occurred at residential schools in order to move toward a healing and reconciliation process for residential school survivors.
If you don’t have one, custom orange T-shirts are available (while supplies last) at the Residential School Survivors Society at 19 Second Ave. in Williams Lake.
