Students Recognize Orange Shirt Day

 Rosanne Fortier - News Correspondent

Students from A.L. Horton Elementary Public School observed Orange Shirt Day and National Day for Truth and Reconciliation by wearing orange, having an orange ribbon pinned to their shirts, and participating in a Story Walk on September 29.

This day is honoured on September 30, but the week before September 30 each year is officially Truth and Reconciliation Week. 

First Nations, Metis, and Inuit Lead Teacher Morgana Larsen explained that the Story Walk followed their treeline along the perimeter of their school grounds. A story walk is taking enlarged pages of a book and placing them in intervals so that readers walk along to read the book. The book they chose was Shi-shi-etko by Nicola I Campbell. Stunning illustrations by Kim LaFave.   

Larsen said the book follows a young, indigenous girl who is counting down the days until she goes to school (residential school). She is doing all the wonderful and memorable activities she normally does with her loving family and storing them in her memory for when she goes off to school. The story ends as she and others are loaded into the back of a truck and taken off to a residential school.

“We chose to recognize the day this way because engaging students and their wider comfort community in acknowledging and participating in learning more about our Canadian history, in regards to how we’ve treated our Indigenous people and youth, is part of the 94 calls for action by Canada’s Truth and Reconcilation Commission to help build a path forward that is based on respect, healing, and repairing broken relationships.

We hope that participants gain knowledge, empathy, and a sense of connection,” Larsen expressed.