SURVIVOR

PHYLLIS WEBSTAD TURNS HER RESIDENTIAL SCHOOL EXPERIENCE INTO A POWERFUL TOOL FOR RECONCILIATION THROUGH ORANGE SHIRT DAY

- LISA CHARLEYBOY

“A LOT OF STUDENTS were asking me over the past few days if we were having the Phyllis Webstad from Orange Shirt Day to speak to us today,” says Meagan Lundgren, Altadore Elementary School’s assistant principal, to the students seated on the floor. “Please welcome the Phyllis Webstad from the Orange Shirt Society to talk to us about Orange Shirt Day!”

Clapping erupts and bright faces emerge from the roughly 200 students at the Calgary school’s assembly on a cold February morning. Shades of orange, from peach to pumpkin to paprika, are evident on many bodies gathered in the gymnasium. There is both an innate curiosity and comfort between the children and their guest of honour.

Webstad is the creator of Orange Shirt Day (September 30), a grassroots movement that turned global a few years ago to commemorate the residential school experience and honour survivors. Since September 2019, she had been touring schools across the country to share her own experience attending residential school and the importance of Orange Shirt Day, part of a project called Paths to Reconciliation, a partnership between the Orange Shirt Society, Canadian Heritage and Canadian Geographic, to bring her story to Canadians. When the tour finished on March 31, Webstad had travelled from Halifax to Calgary, delivering her message of reconciliation in person to more than 6,000 students and 500 adults.

ORANGE SHIRT DAY started school-wide at Altadore in 2018, with Principal Kelly Christopher, although a smattering of classrooms opted in the year prior. Teachers use one of Webstad’s two published children’s books, The Orange Shirt Story and