09/30/2026
https://orangeshirtday.org/about/phyllis-story/
𧑠A little girl, a new orange shirt, and the day it was taken from her
In 1973, six-year-old Phyllis Webstad was getting ready for her very first day of school.
She lived with her grandmother on the Dog Creek reserve in British Columbia. Her family didn't have much, but her grandmother took her to town to buy a new outfit for the big day. Phyllis chose a bright, shiny orange shirt with string laced up the front. She loved it. She couldn't wait to wear it.
She was going to St. Joseph Mission, a residential school near Williams Lake, BC.
When she arrived, her clothes were taken away. Including the orange shirt.
She never wore it again.
It may sound like a small thing. But for Phyllis, that shirt came to stand for something much bigger: the feeling that her feelings didn't matter, and that no one cared. It was a feeling shared by thousands of Indigenous children who were separated from their families, their language and their culture.
And Phyllis wasn't the first in her family to go through it. She was the third generation to attend the same residential school, after her grandmother and her mother.
π How one story became a national day
In 2013, Phyllis shared her story publicly for the first time at the St. Joseph Mission Residential School Commemoration Project and Reunion in Williams Lake. Her story spread quickly, and Orange Shirt Day was born.
September 30 was chosen for a reason: it's the time of year when Indigenous children were historically taken from their homes and sent to residential schools.
What began as one woman's memory spread across the country. Schools, workplaces and communities started wearing orange every September 30, under one simple message:
𧑠Every Child Matters.
In 2021, the Government of Canada made September 30 the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation, a federal statutory day that answers Call to Action 80 of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.
π Did you know?
β’ There were 140 federally run residential schools in Canada, operating between 1867 and 1996.
β’ Many children who were taken to these schools never returned home.
β’ Phyllis has written several children's books about her experience, including The Orange Shirt Story, and leads the Orange Shirt Society to keep the story alive.
Today, the Peace Tower in Ottawa is lit in orange, and Canadians across the country wear orange to honour residential school survivors, their families, and the children who never came home.
It all started with one little girl and one orange shirt.π§‘
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