The crowd in front of the Carnegie Arts and Visitor Centre was a sea of orange as noon approached on Friday, September 29, 2023. There were people of all ages in orange shirts, including many students accompanied by their teachers.
We were all there to show respect for the Indigenous children who survived the Indian Residential School system and remember those who did not make it home. We came to declare that Every Child Matters. #everychildmatters
At 12 o’clock, Mayor of Kingsville Dennis Rogers stood on the steps and welcomed the crowd. He acknowledged the troubled and troubling history of abuses against Canada’s Indigenous people. He told the story of Phyllis (Jack) Webstad, and explained why we wear orange shirts on this day.
Little Phyllis had gone off to her first day of school at age 6 wearing her favourite orange shirt. But when she arrived, her shirt and other treasured belongings were forcibly taken from her.
This was not ancient history, not in pioneer days or Victorian times. This happened to Phyllis as recently as 1973. And of course, similar heartbreaks and far worse have happened to many more Indigenous children over the decades as they were systematically and brutally separated from their families and from their cultures.
The story of Phyllis and her orange shirt has become a symbol for all the Indigenous children and their families who have suffered.
Local Indigenous artist Danny Dumont and his family led the group on a walk up Division Street, along Main Street and back to the Carnegie. As we made our way, a drum beat represented the heartbeat of Mother Earth.
This walk was in keeping with the mission of the Orange Shirt Society. More details on Orange Shirt Day can be found here.
The Government of Canada designated National Day for Truth and Reconciliation as a time to commemorate victims and survivors of residential schools, as well as their families and communities. Its first observance took place on September 30, 2021, after unmarked burials were identified at the sites of former Indian Residential Schools.
Photos provided by Gord Grisenthwaite
Gord Grisenthwaite is an Indigenous writer from Lytton First Nation who now resides in Kingsville. His short story The Fine Art of Frying Eggs won the John Kenneth Galbraith Literary Award (2013). His Splatter Patterns was shortlisted for the CBC Short Story Prize (2021). His debut novel Home Waltz was shortlisted for a Governor General’s Literary Award (2021).