Orange Shirt Day

Orange Shirt Day is an event, created in 2013, designed to educate people and promote awareness in Canada about the Indian residential school system and the impact it has had on Indigenous communities for over a century—an impact recognized as a cultural genocide, and an impact that continues today.

The IKG and the Lodgepole Center worked together to create an activity in the main mall asking participants to use the orange paper provided to trace their hand and write their name, their hopes for the future or something to show support for residential school survivors and Indigenous peoples still struggling with the impacts of the residential school system. We had a gallery attendant working to engage with visitors and talk to them about Orange Shirt Day as well as hand out Truth and Reconciliation books.