September 30: Honouring truth, carrying memory, walking together
On September 30, we pause as a country — not to celebrate, but to remember.
The National Day for Truth and Reconciliation and Orange Shirt Day are not symbolic gestures. They are living commitments. They are reminders etched in memory, stitched into orange fabric and carried in the stories of Survivors who continue to show us what strength, courage and love look like.
This day is about truth. It is about the truth that children were taken from their families, stripped of their languages, their culture, their dignity — many never returned home. It is about the truth that the residential school system was not a chapter of the past, but a wound that bleeds across generations.
And yet, this day is also about love. The love of Survivors who share their stories so the silence will not swallow history. The love of families who hold photos and memories close, who grieve and resist forgetting. The love of communities who fight every day for their languages, their ceremonies and their children.
Why We Wear Orange
In 1973, when Phyllis (Jack) Webstad was only six years old, she arrived at residential school wearing a bright new orange shirt her grandmother had given her. That shirt was taken away on her first day — never to be returned.
Her orange shirt has become a powerful symbol. It reminds us of the thousands of children whose clothes, hair and names were stripped away. But it also reminds us that identity cannot be erased. Each orange shirt we wear today carries a promise: Every Child Matters.
More Than a Day
The creation of the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation in 2021 came as Survivors’ voices could no longer be ignored. Mass graves were being uncovered. Canadians were forced to confront truths that Indigenous communities had spoken about for generations.
But reconciliation is not a single day. It is not a checkbox or a social media post. It is a daily choice — to listen, to learn, to unlearn, to act. September 30 is an invitation into this lifelong work.
A Call to Heart and Action
On September 30, let us:
- Remember those children who never made it home.
- Honour the Survivors whose voices break open silence.
- Reflect on the systems that allowed such violence and the ways they still exist today.
- Commit ourselves to walking differently, together, towards justice.
Wear orange. Listen to a Survivor. Teach your children the truth. Support Indigenous-led healing, language and cultural resurgence.
Every act matters, because every child matters.
