REGINA – The students at Scott Collegiate joined people across the country on Orange Shirt Day Tuesday, a national campaign, which began last year.
“We are all affected whether we went to residential school or not,” said Elder Noel Starblanket to the students .
“Every year on September 30th, we’ll be honoring residential school survivors and people that didn’t survive with the orange colour,” explained grade 10 student, Keegan Oliver-Gress.
The idea came out of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission and one woman’s story of her first day at school: “What happened was her orange shirt, that was brand new – and at that time any new clothes were a rarity, was destroyed,” said Shannon Fayant, Scott Collegiate principal.
The woman’s story also resonated with students at Scott who’d been learning about Canadian history and treaties.
“Everyone here, or mostly everyone here, is from an aboriginal background and we can almost guarantee that each one of these persons has a family member affected by a residential school,” said grade 12 student, Evan Goodpipe.
Tuesday’s assembly is aimed at helping each other recognize the ongoing impact and finding ways to get past it.
“And I hope one day we can just look on and move forward,” said Goodpipe.
“I’m really grateful and I’m really privileged to be associated with these students because they are leading us through this and I’ve always said it’s our students that guide us,” said Fayant.
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