Orange Shirt Day Stories for Children
Every child matters
Webstad, Phyllis, author
2023
Learn the meaning behind the phrase, 'Every Child Matters.' Orange Shirt Day founder, Phyllis Webstad, offers insights into this heartfelt movement. Every Child Matters honours the history and resiliency of Indigenous Peoples on Turtle Island and moves us all forward on a path toward Truth and Reconciliation. If you're a Residential School Survivor or an Intergenerational Survivor - you matter. For the children who didn't make it home - you matter. The child inside every one of us matters. Every Child Matters.
Fatty legs : a true story
Jordan-Fenton, Christy, author
2010
The moving memoir of an Inuit girl who emerges from a residential school with her spirit intact.
Ispík kákí péyakoyak = When we were alone
Robertson, David, 1977- author
2020
"When a young girl helps tend to her grandmother’s garden, she begins to notice things about her grandmother that make her curious. Why does her grandmother have long braided hair and wear beautifully coloured clothing? Why does she speak another language and spend so much time with her family? As she asks her grandmother about these things, she is told about life in a residential school a long time ago, where everything was taken away. When We Were Alone is a story about a difficult time in history and, ultimately, a story of empowerment and strength."-- Provided by publisher.
Kimotinâniwiw itwêwina = Stolen words
Florence, Melanie, author
2019
When a little girl comes home from school one day and asks her grandpa how to say something in his Cree langauge, he is sad that he cannot teach her. He tells her that his words were stolen from him when he was taken to live in a residential school as a boy. The little girl then sets out to help her grandpa find his language again.
My name is Seepeetza
Sterling, Shirley, author
1992
Seepeetza loves living on Joyaska Ranch with her parents and brothers and sisters. But when she is six years old, she must go to live in the town of Kalamak, British Columbia, and attend Indian residential school. The nuns call her "Martha" and cut her hair. She is forbidden to "talk Indian," even with her sisters and cousins.
No time to say goodbye : children's stories of Kuper Island Residential School
Olsen, Sylvia, 1955- author
2001
Phyllis's orange shirt
Webstad, Phyllis, author
2019
When Phyllis Webstad (nee Jack) turned six, she went to the residential school for the first time. On her first day at school, she wore a shiny orange shirt that her Granny had bought for her, but when she got to the school, it was taken away from her and never returned. This is the true story of Phyllis and her orange shirt. It is also the story of Orange Shirt Day (an important day of remembrance for First Nations and non First Nations Canadians).
Poppa and his drum : a heartwarming story of truth and reconciliation
Doucette, Judith M., author.
2023
"After moving from an all-French Indigenous community to the English community of St. George's when he was a little boy, Poppa's life as a young man was very sad. He was treated badly by his schoolteachers and some other children in the town. Years later, when his grandson wants to bring him into school to play his drum for the class, Poppa is nervous but goes anyway. He is relieved to see he is welcomed and even encouraged to share his knowledge of the traditions and customs of his Mi'kmaw culture. Thankfully, times have changed from Poppa's generation, and he is pleased to have reconciled with the bad experiences he had when he went to school. Indeed, there is strength and wisdom in Reconciliation!"-- Provided by publisher.
Residential schools : the devastating impact on Canada's Indigenous peoples and the Truth and Reconciliation Commission's findings and Calls for Action
Florence, Melanie, author
2022
Canada's residential school system for Indigenous children is now recognized as a grievous historic wrong committed against First Nations, Métis and Inuit peoples. Through historical photographs, documents and first-person narratives from people who survived residential schools, this book offers an account of the injustice of this period in Canadian history. It documents how official racism was confronted and finally acknowledged. In 1857, the Gradual Civilization Act was passed in Canada with the aim of assimilating Indigenous people. In 1879, Prime Minister Sir John A. Macdonald commissioned a report that led to residential schools across Canada. First Nations and Inuit children were taken from their families and sent to residential schools where they were dressed in uniforms, their hair was cut, they were forbidden to speak their native language and they were often subjected to physical and psychological abuse. The schools were run by churches and funded by the federal government. The last federally funded residential school closed in 1996. The horrors that many children endured at residential schools did not go away. It took decades for people to speak out, but with the support of the Assembly of First Nations and Inuit organizations, former residential school students took the federal government and the churches to court. Their cases led to the Indian Residential Schools Settlement Agreement, the largest class-action settlement in Canadian history. In 2008, Prime Minister Harper formally apologized to former native residential school students for the atrocities they suffered and the role the government played in setting up the school system. The agreement included the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, which has worked to document the experience. More than five years after the TRC Report was released, there have been reports of unmarked graves of children being discovered at the site of former residential schools. This updated edition includes some of those findings and examines what has and what still has to be done in regards to the TRC Report's Calls to Action.
These are my words : the residential school diary of Violet Pesheens
Slipperjack, Ruby, 1952-, author
2016
The train
Callaghan, Jodie, 1984- author
2020
Ashley meets her great-uncle by the old train tracks near their community in Nova Scotia. Ashley sees his sadness, and Uncle tells her of the day years ago when he and the other children from their community were told to board the train before being taken to residential school where their lives were changed forever. They weren't allowed to speak Mi'gmaq and were punished if they did. There was no one to give them love and hugs and comfort. Uncle also tells Ashley how happy she and her sister make him. They are what give him hope. Ashley promises to wait with her uncle by the train tracks, in remembrance of what was lost.
White Raven
Spathelfer, Teoni, 1963- author
2021
"Little Wolf, grown up with children of her own, moves to the country where her mother, White Raven, shares a sad story from her childhood. All grown up with a family of her own, Little Wolf moves from the big city to the island of her ancestors. She wants to share the beauty and mysteries of nature with her children, and she wants them to learn as much about their culture as possible. One day, Little Wolf's mother, White Raven, visits and begins to tell her grandchildren stories from her own childhood. But the stories are not happy ones. As a child, White Raven left her family to attend St. Michael's Residential School in Alert Bay, BC. While there, she experienced hunger, loneliness, shame, and isolation from her language and her culture. Even years later, as a grown woman and Elder, she has nightmares about her time at the school. But by sharing her story with Little Wolf and her grandchildren, White Raven begins to heal and brings the family closer together. Through simple, heartfelt text and vivid illustrations that combine contemporary and traditional Indigenous motifs, White Raven is an engaging teaching tool as well as a relatable narrative about the impact of intergenerational trauma on families. Based on the author's own life and her mother's residential school experience, the central message of this book is one of healing and family unity."-- Provided by publisher.
With our orange hearts
Webstad, Phyllis.
2023
"Every child matters, including you and me. With our orange hearts, we walk in harmony." As a young child, your little world can be full of big emotions. In this book, I, Phyllis Webstad, founder of Orange Shirt Day, show that sharing my story with the world helped me to process my feelings. My true orange shirt story encourages young children to open their hearts and listen as others share their feelings, and to be more comfortable sharing their own feelings too. Listening is a first step towards reconciliation. It's never too early to start.