Orange Shirt Society

Williams Lake First Nation to restore former residential school area on its own terms

By: Lucaiah Smith-Miodownik, News Writer Content warning: brief descriptions of residential school violence and cultural genocide of Indigenous Peoples, mentions of burial sites.  “I grieve for all who never made it — the children who never made it home and for survivors and their families who could not keep carrying the pain.” These words come from Phyllis Webstad, member of the Stswecem’c Xgat’tem First Nation (St-wet-lem hight-lem), founder of Orange Shirt Society, and survivor of the St. Joseph’s Mission Indian Residential School. Orange Shirt Society started Orange Shirt Day as a holiday “designed to commemorate the residential school experience, to…

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