Hundreds of people gathered at Surrey's Holland Park on Friday afternoon (Sept. 27) to honour survivors of the residential school system and their families, and to remember those who did not return.
The annual National Day for Truth and Reconciliation event, hosted by Surrey Urban Indigenous Leadership Committee (SUILC) and Skookum Surrey, aims to shed light on B.C.’s colonial history and how it continues to impact Indigenous communities today.
Semiahmoo First Nation Chief Harley Chappell thanked those who attended. "But I want you to know and understand one thing: the (orange) shirt that we're wearing this day, that we represent on Monday, this is a day of mourning. It's a day of remembrance. It's a day to acknowledge the trials and tribulations our people have had over the generations, to get us to today," Chappell said.
"A lot of our elders, many of this crowd they can't take this orange shirt off. It doesn't come off. It's something that a lot of us, we still hold deep, deep in our hearts, this hurt and this challenge."
Orange Shirt Day is a legacy of the St. Joseph’s Mission residential school commemoration event held in Williams Lake in the spring of 2013. It grew out of a girl named Phyllis Webstad’s account of having her pretty orange shirt taken away on her first day of school at the Mission, and now Orange Shirt Day has become an opportunity to keep the discussion about residential schools happening across the country.
On July 7, 2021, the federal government declared Sept. 30 a federal statutory holiday called the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation, to provide Canadians the opportunity to recognize and commemorate the legacy of residential schools and ongoing impacts. On March 9, 2023, the B.C. government passed legislation to make Sept. 30 a statutory holiday.
Bannock, tea and coffee was served at the Orange Shirt Day event, and Indigenous dancers and drummers performed from 3 to 5 p.m., near the park fountains off Old Yale Road. A ceremonial Orange Shirt Day Drum March began at SFU Surrey and travelled to Holland Park.
People were urged to wear orange as "a symbol of hope, reconciliation and a commitment to a better future – to show your commitment to both truth and reconciliation," notes a post on SUILC's website (surreyindigenousleadership.ca).
-With files from James Smith
