Wearing Orange to Heal, to Remember, and Build Collective Power: NDN Collective Honors Orange Shirt Day

Sarah Sunshine Manning · September 30, 2021

Wearing Orange to Heal, to Remember, and Build Collective Power: NDN Collective Honors Orange Shirt Day

On Orange Shirt Day, we honor all of the children who suffered unimaginable pain and devastation in boarding and residential school systems. At NDN Collective, we remember them today and every day, and we lift up their spirits– survivors who are still with us, and the countless loved ones and children in the spirit world who never made it home.

Origins of Orange Shirt Day

In 1973, six-year old Phyllis Webstad of the Stswecem’c Xgat’tem First Nation began her education at an Indian residential school at a Catholic mission in her ancestral homelands in what is known today as British Columbia, Canada. Eager to wear the new orange shirt given to her by her grandmother for her first day at residential school, Phyllis quickly learned that to attend an Indian residential school meant that she would not only be stripped of her cherished orange shirt, but that she would just as quickly be deprived of the love and autonomy she once knew among her own people.  

Years after her residential school experience, Phyllis shared the story of her orange shirt in 2013, prompting a movement later known as “Orange Shirt Day” to honor survivors of Indian residential schools in Canada. Orange Shirt Day, also known as the National Day of Remembrance in the U.S., is a day to engage in international conversation about the impacts of boarding and residential schools on Indigenous people. 

Hundreds of Indigenous children in front of Carlisle Indian Industrial School in Carlisle, Pennsylvania. c. 1900.

Indigenous people in the so-called U.S., Canada, and the islands of Hawaii are either survivors or descendants of survivors of a devastating legacy of oppressive education policies that began with Indian boarding schools in the late nineteenth century, beginning with the first Indian boarding school in the U.S. at Carlisle Indian Industrial School, founded in 1879. For more than 100 years after the doors of Carlisle Indian Industrial School opened, compulsory education was used as a tool to break the spirits of Indigenous children in the U.S. and Canada while forcefully assimilating them into Western culture. 

Wearing Orange to Heal and Remember 

For years, Phyllis Webstad avoided wearing the color orange, as it triggered memories of the cold treatment she endured while at residential school. Years later and in an effort to heal, Phyllis embraced the color orange again as an adult. “Every child matters,” became the motto of what soon became Orange Shirt Day, honoring even the wounded inner child within the adult survivors of Indian residential schools in Canada. The “orange shirt movement” quickly spread to the U.S., resonating with Indigenous people who either survived or descended from boarding school survivors. 

“Orange shirt day reminds us of the violence and trauma that forced education imposed on our relatives,” says Mary Bowman (Oglala Lakota), NACA Inspired Schools Network (NISN) Fellow and NDN Collective Education Equity Team member. “Parents had their children taken away to boarding schools so that they would ‘assimilate’ and forget their language and culture. Too many of our relatives did not come home, and too many carry historical trauma today. We pray for the ones lost that didn’t come home, we remember them, and we pray for healing for survivors.”

While some children did return to their Tribal communities after attending and surviving Indian boarding and residential schools, countless other children died while under the watch of residential school officials– some dying of malnourishment, abuse, poor health, or broken hearts.  Other children perished while attempting to run away from the schools, fleeing a range of sexual, physical, spiritual, and emotional abuse. 

“We remember our wakanyeja, our sacred beings that never made it home,” said Amy Sazue (Oglala Lakota/Sicangu Lakota), NDN Collective Education Equity Organizer. “We honor them and work to protect all of our children now and in the future. I observe Orange Shirt Day by acknowledging the connection to my children that was intended to be broken as their mother and first teacher and honor the gift of motherhood by cultivating a life where they are loved and protected. This is my hope for all of our children.”  

Lakota children before entering Indian boarding school. C. 1897.

Phyllis’s story is just one story of many similar stories of Indian residential school survivors who seek to heal from the residual effects of oppressive education policies designed to break up the Indigenous family structure, and, in the words of Captain Richard Henry Pratt, founder of Indian boarding schools, “kill the Indian” and “save the man.” 

Self-Determining Solutions and Building Cultural Power

While compulsory Indian boarding school ended in the U.S. in the 1960s and the last Indian residential school shut down in Canada in 1996, schools continue to be places of mistrust for many Indigenous people. 

“Today for Orange Shirt Day, we honor the abinoojiiyag (children) who were taken from us too soon,” says Korina Barry (Anishinaabe), NDN Collective Managing Director of NDN Action. “Our people are still healing from the trauma of the boarding school era and the violence that was inflicted on our children and families. White Supremacy is the foundation, the core of the United States educational system– a system that is still working to assimilate and indoctrinate our children to this day.” 

“Indigenous communities all over Turtle Island have long fought for schools and educational systems that our children deserve,” says Barry. “Schools that honor Indigenous history, knowledge, culture, and language. Schools where our children feel both seen and heard. Indigenous people have always had the knowledge and resources for teaching our children and this is the kind of education that will both heal and empower our young people and their communities.” 

As part of our mission to decolonize education and empower Indigenous children with culturally relevant curriculum, and in partnership with the NACA Inspired Schools Network, the NDN Collective will be opening the Oceti Sakowin Community Academy in South Dakota in the fall of 2022. The school is one of many self-determining Indigenous solutions to a long legacy of oppressive education for Indigenous people. The school will be a place where children are exposed to their language, culture, history, and instructed with pedagogies that draw upon Indigenous values of kinship and deep reverence for children. 

As Indigenous people, we recognize the healing that occurs when those who have been silenced for generations are offered an opportunity to contribute to the solution.

“All children deserve to know who they are and see themselves in what they are learning,” says Mary Bowman.  “NDN Collective is also in partnership with NISN in opening a school in Rapid City that will bring healing from the historical trauma imposed by boarding schools because the school will be grounded in the thought and philosophy of the Oceti Sakowin (Seven Council Fires of Lakota, Dakota, and Nakota people). This type of education environment will bring healing to our children as they are given back what was taken– language and culture.”

NDN Collective’s Education Equity Team also recently organized a march and campaign fighting newly proposed social studies standards in the state of South Dakota that erase over a dozen different references to Indigenous people in the state curriculum. The Oceti Sakowin March for Our Children, organized by the NDN Collective and South Dakota Education Equity Coalition on September 13, also honored survivors of Indian residential and boarding schools with the color orange.

Allies and members of NDN Collective Education Equity team stand in front of the South Dakota state capitol building after organizing the Oceti Sakowin March for Our Children. Photo by Willi White for NDN Collective.

“The National Day of Remembrance and Orange Shirt Day also illuminates the correlation between the boarding school era of the past and current policy agendas in education today that are still oppressive,” says Sazue. “The ‘kill the Indian, save the man’ mentality is still alive and well in education, and we are actively fighting assimilation and indoctrination in school systems today.” 

“Our work intends to bring healing and prosperity to future generations by directly addressing the ongoing racist policy agendas while offering solutions to disparities in academic achievement that come from our own people,” says Sazue. “As Indigenous people, we recognize the healing that occurs when those who have been silenced for generations are offered an opportunity to contribute to the solution.” 

The generational damage caused by Indian boarding schools in the U.S. and Indian residential schools in Canada, cannot be understated. Today, our communities continue to fight for healing and self-determining solutions to the trauma caused by the generations of oppressive education policies and settler colonial policies, moreover.

“Today I wear orange in remembrance of the Indigenous children who lost their lives as a result of racism and settler colonialism,” says Nick Tilsen (Oglala Lakota), NDN Collective President and CEO “We are fighting for a future that the next generation can see themselves in– a future where schools and education are tools for liberation and building cultural power.”

On Orange Shirt Day, we honor all of the children who suffered unimaginable pain and devastation in boarding and residential school systems. At NDN Collective, we remember them today and every day, and we lift up their spirits– survivors who are still with us, and the countless loved ones and children in the spirit world who never made it home.

We also honor and recognize the power of just one story to build a movement. Much thanks to the gentle courage of Phyllis Webstad in sharing her story, Indigenous people across Turtle Island and worldwide are given the invitation to do their own healing work, too– to wear orange to heal, to remember, and to build collective power. So many of our very own mothers, grandmothers, fathers and grandfathers, each have their own version of an “orange shirt” story. We remember and fight for all of them, healing and organizing forward together.  

“To those young ancestors who didn’t survive– you are loved, you are remembered, and we will not stop fighting for you.” –Korina Barry (Anishinaabe), NDN Collective Managing Director of NDN Action  

Sarah Sunshine Manning
by   Sarah Sunshine Manning

Sarah Sunshine Manning, NDN Collective Director of Communications, is a citizen of the Shoshone-Paiute Tribes of the Duck Valley Indian Reservation in Idaho and Nevada, and Chippewa-Cree of Rocky Boy, Montana. Manning directs NDN Collective’s communications strategy and impact. She also serves as producer of the NDN Podcast While Indigenous and as editor of the NDN blog. Manning has Bachelor’s degrees in American Indian Studies, Social Science-History, and licensure in Secondary Education. She has a Master’s degree in journalism and mass communication.

October 2023 Edition

Stay Informed. Take Action.

Subscribe to the NDN allies newsletter

Sign up to get our newsletter. Delivered once per month.

We care about the protection of your data and would never sell your email or share it with anyone without your permission.

Dozens Hold Sit-in to Demand Resignation of SD State's Attorney Posted 7 days ago
"The state’s attorney’s office is sending a message to the entire community that you can kill a Native person and pay a small fee and go on with your life. What that does is shows how you value Native people's lives. We are their constituents, they work for us, right? So where's our justice?" 
'We deserve to be here': Bringing Grassroots Indigenous Advocacy to DC

Jordynn Paz

Posted 1 week ago
NDN Collective traveled to Piscataway Territory (so-called Washington, DC) to meet with lawmakers and federal agencies; bringing our stories, priorities, and Indigenous-led solutions to the table.
NDN Collective Releases 5 Yr Impact Report, Highlighting Groundbreaking Work to Empower Indigenous Peoples Posted 4 weeks ago
“Launched in 2018, NDN Collective provides the most ambitious, systemic approach to empowering Native communities in the history of philanthropy and impact investing. The change, justice, and liberation we seek requires the centering of marginalized experiences and leadership, as well as the significant redistribution of resources currently overseeing the concentration of wealth.”
All Things Indigenous: Celebrating, Remembering, and Building Power in the Hesápa on Indigenous Peoples' Day 

Jordynn Paz

Posted 1 month ago
NDN Collective hosted the first ever Indigenous Peoples' Day march and celebration in MniLuzahan. The Rapid City community was invited to enjoy music by Indigenous artists, bounce houses for kids, food trucks, vendors and information booths representing various Indigenous-serving organizations.
NDN Collective Calls for Cease Fire, End of Military Aid to Israel Posted 1 month ago
"We mourn the lives already lost and feel dread knowing that many more will die. This is why we must rise up now and hold the U.S. government accountable in the funding of and profiteering from this war."
On Indigenous Peoples' Day, Supporters Call for Unity and Justice in the Wake of Hate Crime Shooting of Indigenous Activist Jacob Johns   Posted 2 months ago
“If anyone doubts that Indigenous people aren’t safe in this country, this shooting should dispel those doubts. What happened to Jacob is part of the ongoing legacy of colonization and continued threat of white supremacist violence facing Indigenous Peoples across the country."
Bipartisan Letter Urges President Biden to Grant Clemency to Leonard Peltier Posted 2 months ago
“As Members of Congress, we sign this letter with a deep commitment to the crucial role we play in upholding justice for all Americans – and to also hold our government accountable when we see a case of injustice, as demonstrated by the long incarceration of Leonard Peltier."
Call to Action: No $100,000 Oñate Statue Posted 2 months ago
Rio Arriba County in Northern New Mexico is spending more than $100,000 to move a statue of conquistador and colonizer, Juan de Oñate, out of storage to display it in front of their county offices. This is not about a statue; this is about the settler colonial system that allows racist politicians like Alex Naranjo to do as they please on stolen land.
NDN Collective Launches Indigenous Climate & Just Transition Fund Posted 2 months ago
“We urge philanthropic organizations to join us in this moment by resourcing the Indigenous communities who have proven solutions to repair our relationship with the Earth. The climate investments implemented over the next few years will set the groundwork for generations to come.”  
4 Fossil Fuel Projects that Harm Indigenous Communities Posted 2 months ago
We remain persistent in reminding the Biden Administration and those in power that our Indigenous communities and lands continue to face harm through extractive measures that directly contribute to the climate crisis.

United like never before, we rise together—arm in arm—to equip all Indigenous Peoples with the tools needed to become architects of our future. Through a holistic approach to infrastructure, funding, advocacy, movement building, and philanthropy we are fostering a world of justice and equity for all people and the planet.