By: Zainab Salam, Opinions Editor
Every September 30, since 2021, we see public statements made by institutions and corporations that are still operating on unceded land — statements to remind us to observe the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation. This day is also known as Orange Shirt Day, a grassroots movement that began in 2013 and has grown into a national day of remembrance and accountability. But one day of acknowledgment isn’t enough to alleviate the weight of centuries of colonial harm on Turtle Island and its peoples.
I feel like I’m stating the obvious, but the colour orange goes beyond symbolism. Phyllis Webstad’s experience, of having her new orange shirt stripped from her, on her first day of being forced into a residential school, showcases the erasure, violence, and trauma that Indigenous children endured — and still endure. We need to make sure that Orange Shirt Day extends beyond a single date on the calendar. In a metaphorical sense, Orange Shirt Day should be every day!
An aspect of this is cultivating sustained mindfulness — an insistence that the truths of Canada’s history should remain present in our daily lives, especially if we’re settlers on this unceded land. The violence of residential schools is not a closed chapter, but a living, breathing legacy that still harms Indigenous children.
This means confronting hard truths about ourselves as well. It’s easy to participate in symbolic gestures, but much harder to ask: how does my workspace, my university, my neighbourhood, and even my family benefit from the displacement of Indigenous Peoples? How do my taxes, my voting choices, and my silence reinforce colonial structures? These are uncomfortable questions, ones that we must ask ourselves to fight injustice. True reconciliation isn’t about easing our conscience but about understanding how power is distributed and how resources are stolen. Moreover, it’s about actively working to materially improve Indigenous lives — by focusing on each community’s wants and needs.
Of course, no single person can dismantle centuries of colonial violence on their own. However, if history teaches us anything, it’s that collective action matters. When we come together with honesty and humility, when we recall, daily, the children who never came home and the survivors who continue to heal, we begin to build a different kind of future. One where Indigenous children are better provided for, and protected. Instilling that yes, every child does matter!
So, let’s wear orange on September 30 — and carry its significance into October, November, and every month thereafter.
We shouldn’t consign remembrance to a single day of symbolism. The children who were lost, and the survivors who remain, deserve more than just a day of recognition. They deserve their voices to be heard, their rights to be upheld, and their futures to be safeguarded. To honour them is to act daily, to live in ways that challenge colonialism rather than quietly sustaining it. By doing so, we would be donning an orange shirt every day and embodying its meaning.
