Blog 6 - Wednesday, September 29, 2021
Today is ORANGE SHIRT DAY!
What does Orange Shirt Day symbolize?
What are the lasting impacts of the Residential School System on Indigenous individuals, Peoples and communities?
‘Every child matters’ is the slogan for Orange Shirt Day. For what reasons is it an appropriate slogan? How can we ensure that this slogan remains TRUE?
Explain.
Orange shirt day is a day where we think about the First Nations children who were sent to Residential Schools. Obviously there are many negative impacts that First Nations peoples and communities have from these “schools” but I think the biggest impact is that the horror behind the Residential Schools was hidden for so long. They had to hide the abuse and racism faced by the schools from everyone because to them it grew to be normal. Obviously Residential schools aren't normal but they were forced to adapt to the new religion and culture that this new “identity” became normal, even though it’s completely wrong. This slogan is meant to remember every child that survived and did not survive in the Residential schools. I believe it’s appropriate because we really should think about every child, and every child does matter. The survivors are people we need to take into consideration when we talk about First Nations history, but also the ones who are not with us today. To make sure it’s true, we have to keep talking about First Nations history and every September 30th, we must spend the day thinking about Residential Schools.
ReplyDeleteIt's terrible how Canada hid such big parts of our history. You are definitely right, we should always continue to talk about what happened and be sure to remember it. - Anna Slavin
DeleteOrange shirt day is a day where we honour all of the indigenous people affected by residential schools. This includes the children sent to the schools, their families, and all of the kids whose lives were lost because of the so-called schools. One massive impact that the schools have left is intergenerational trauma, wounds that have been passed down from generation to generation. Another effect was the loss of culture. People sent to the schools were stripped of their culture and might have even forgotten it so they wouldn't be able to pass down their customs to their children. The slogan every child matters fits orange shirt day because the indigenous people sent to the residential schools were all children. To ensure that the slogan remains a fact, we have to keep talking about residential schools and educating everyone about our history so that it will never be forgotten and never repeat itself.
ReplyDelete-Anna Slavin
DeleteI love that you brought up intergenerational trauma as one of the impacts!
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