By Bryan Eneas

Muskoday First Nation Community School celebrates Orange Shirt Day

Sep 30, 2016 | 5:00 PM

For the first year ever Saskatchewan school boards have recognized Orange Shirt Day.

Orange shirt day derives from the residential schools; in Williams Lake, one attendee was forced to remove her orange shirt upon arrival at the Williams Lake Indian Residential School in B.C. Now, students are coming together in unity across Canada to show their support for residential school survivors by wearing orange t-shirts.

Andrew DeBray, the newest principal of Muskoday First Nation Community School, said today is also about the children who are “intergenerational survivors” of the residential school.

“All of us have been touched in one way or another have been touched (by residential schools),” DeBray said. “That’s where the ignorance maybe comes in, and lack of education… they don’t realize that there is those intergenerational effects that do happen.”

DeBray said because of what they learned in residential schools, some parents may not know about their culture, or have an understanding of how to show love and compassion. 

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“(Today) is a testament to what is already happens here. In terms of that cultural component and the value; to me it’s validating this is not just a one-time day,” DeBray said. “This is not where it stops.”

The community school has been educating students on the residential school system, according to cultural co-ordinator Myrna Turner. She said the effects of the residential schools left First Nations communities in “disorder.”

“The impact on the generations and the disorder we find in our communities (is) that there are broken families from the residential school era. There’s broken communities,” Turner said. “We’re trying to get past that.”

Turner, a residential school survivor herself, also shares some of her experiences while attending in school with the students. According to Turner, Muskoday community school also brings in many speakers who attended residential schools, such as Howard Walker, (http://panow.com/article/587034/powwow-trail-howard-walker-master-ceremonies) to speak to students about their experiences and how it has affected them.

Orange Shirt Day is hosted in September because it is the month students were taken from their families to study in schools funded by either the church, or the federal government. Almost all of Muskoday’s students participated in the commemorative walk.

Bryan.eneas@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @BryanEneas