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IDEAS FOR PART 2:

Related Activity

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IDEAS FOR PART 1:

Lead a discussion / presentation so advisory groups can reflect / learn about Truth and Reconciliation day

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What booths did you visit at NPS

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kahoot

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talk about what peple did at nps

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What do you already know about truth and reconcilliation day?

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Messages for kids on Orange Shirt Day | CBC Kids News

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Maybe some sort of craft relating to orange shirt day 🤣✌️

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art competition

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i wat to play an art game with grason about indigeninous art

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we could do a trivia i🤣✌️

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yes i would lovge to do a trivia

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how much do you Already know about truth and reconciliation day

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we could learn about different first nation cultures (ex diet)

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women in FNMI cultures

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make a pin about orange shirt day

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what are the seven grandfather teachings you have or have not heard about

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we Could Learn About different first Nations Customs and develop our Knowlage About their lives

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what have you now learned about orange shirt day

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truth and reconciliation day art comlpitition

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Make Every Child Matters Hearts🎃🖖
. https://www.canadashistory.ca/education/lesson-plans/making-reconciliation-real

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Making Reconciliation Real - Canada’s History

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Students will explore the cultural and personal losses that children suffered while attending Residential Schools. Students will generate their own ideas about reconciliation and community action.

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Community Ceremony

A Sample Agenda

We've created a simple and effective sample agenda for your community event.

Opening prayer and drumming

Welcome to traditional territory by Chief

Welcome by Mayor, local government representative

Greetings from provincial government officials, School Board

Residential school survivor or family member speaking about residential school

Entertainment and/or children's activity.

That's it, that's all you have to do! Keep it simple and it will be effective. You may very well have other ideas that you would like to try. Try them. You may also want to use the day as a kick off to other activities during the year. Go ahead - do that! The only thing we ask is that Phyllis' story is part of your day.

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Residential Schools & ReconciliationResources Please browse our selection of resources and ideas to help you with understanding and planning Orange Shirt Day, the Residential School System of Canada, and much more.Community CeremonyA Sample AgendaWe've created a simple and effective sample agenda for your community event.

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Activities for Orange Shirt Day include educating yourself on the history of residential schools, wearing an orange shirt to show support, participating in community events or assemblies, creating art or writing that reflects the themes of reconciliation, reading Phyllis Webstad's story and other books on Indigenous culture, engaging in land-based activities, and committing to concrete calls to action for reconciliation.

Educational Activities

Learn about the history:

Educate yourself and others about the history and legacy of Canada's residential school system by reading Phyllis Webstad's story and visiting the official Orange Shirt Society website.

Read books:

Read picture books and other literature that feature Indigenous culture and experiences, including stories about residential schools and the ongoing journey of reconciliation.

Watch videos:

View videos that share Phyllis Webstad's story and other resources that powerfully explain the impacts of residential schools.

Take an online course:

Consider taking the Indigenous Canada online course from the University of Alberta to deepen your understanding.

Creative and Symbolic Activities

Wear orange:

Purchase and wear an orange shirt to show your commitment to learning about and raising awareness for Orange Shirt Day.

Create art or write:

Engage in activities like art contests, creative writing competitions, or designing posters to express your reflections on reconciliation and the residential school legacy.

Paint rocks:

Paint rocks in remembrance of the children who never returned home from residential schools.

Make paper chains:

Create a paper chain with each link featuring a reason why every student is important, connecting to the "Every Child Matters" motto.

Community and Engagement

Attend assemblies:

Participate in school or community assemblies held on Orange Shirt Day.

Engage with Elders and survivors:

Invite local Elders and residential school survivors to share their stories and experiences.

Connect with the land:

Take a moment to connect with the land where your school or home is located, reflecting on Indigenous connections to the land.

Support Indigenous-led initiatives:

Support and engage with Indigenous-led organizations and initiatives in your community.

Commit to calls to action:

Read and commit to the calls to action from the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada and consider sending letters to government leaders.

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create a large collaborative "Every Child Matters" display with orange-painted feathers, design individual "Calls to Action" on large paper shirts to be shared during the assembly, or make individual reflective art pieces after listening to a residential school survivor's testimony.

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Craft instructions are provided at the bottom of this post. Please first read on for background on the meaning behind this craft, beadwork, and Truth and Reconciliation.

About Orange Shirt Day

From 1874 to 1996, approximately 150,000 children from First Nations, Inuit, and Metis communities were sent to Residential Schools. It is known that over 3,000 children did not return home. With unmarked graves being discovered and records being examined, it is estimated that over 6,000 never saw their families again.

Phyllis (Jack) Webstad was 6 years old in 1973 and going away to a residential school for the first time. Her grandmother saved up and bought her a beautiful, shiny orange shirt to wear. Those who worked at the school stripped her of the bright-coloured gift and never gave it back. That shirt became a symbol of her trauma and heartbreak.

She turned it into a symbol of healing. Orange Shirt Day began in 2013 on September 30.

In 2021, the day became known as the Day of Truth and Reconciliation. It is a day for many Canadians to learn and reflect on our shared history, in the hopes to begin healing.

Resources

About beading

Beading as sacred

Beading has played a significant and often sacred role among the people of Turtle Island, for over 8,000 years. With porcupine quills and beads made of stone, shell, antler, and even glass, beading is important for artistic expression, communication, identification, and trade. Many patterns and styles of beaded ornamentation have been passed down through families, communities, and nations for generations.

Beading circles have been a key communal space for the intergenerational teaching of traditional skills and oral histories, and the sharing of stories, ideas, and deep reflections. However, as European colonization in Canada increased and spread, many indigenous traditions were suppressed. As with banning traditional languages and ceremonies, and the forced removal of children to residential schools, prohibiting beading practices aimed to erase individual and collective identity, knowledge, and sever multigenerational connections.

Beading as medicine and healing

Beading is a symbol of Indigenous resiliency. Many Residential School survivors, survivors of the sixties scoop, and their descendants who were denied knowledge of their heritage, began the process of rediscovering their history and reconnecting with their culture, by learning traditional skills from an Elder, artist or at a Friendship Center.

Over the last several decades, Indigenous artists and teachers have employed art and craft for healing-to rebuild, empower, and educate. Beading is intentional and purposeful, requires deep focus and concentration. Beading requires a willingness to seek peace through continuous, respectful actions and connections.

The beading process and beading circle is one that invites listening, contemplation and reflection, and create a space to build relationships. It can take many individual, thoughtful stitches, by many hands over many hours, to complete a single piece of sacred beaded regalia.

Step-by-step DIY Orange Shirt Day pin instructions

Downloads
Click to download or view PDF documents

1. Original Instructions by Indigenous beader and educator, Jenny Blackbird.

2. Halifax Public Libraries Instructions - with several updates to original.

Video tutorial
Prefer visual and verbal instruction? Bead along with the artist in her tutorial, How to Make a Beaded Orange Shirt Pin with Jenny Blackbird, , produced and hosted by University of Toronto's Ciimaan Kahuwe'ya Qajaq (CKQ) Indigenous Language Initiative and First Nations House Indigenous Student Services (FNH).

Written instructions

Here (above) are some examples to inspire you. You can make it as complicated or as simple as you like. Some were made freehand.

1. Gather your supplies.

a shirt template (recommended)

a glue stick

felt or a similar stiffer fabric (Pellon© is a stabilizer fabric available at any craft or fabric store)

a sewing needle

thread in black or orange

scissors

a pin to glue onto the back

fabric glue

orange beads, size 10 or 11 if using seed beads

2.

Use the glue stick to attach the shirt template to the felt, or whatever material you are using as a stabilizer. Let it dry before you start sewing.

Note: If you already know how to sew and bead, you can trace or draw the shirt outline with either a ballpoint pen or a thin alcohol based marker and start beading free-hand.

3.

Thread your needle and tie a double knot at the end of your thread. This will keep the thread from being pulled out as you sew.

4.

Push your needle from the back of the piece and up through the paper. Pull the thread all the way through until you reach the knot.

5.

Thread on 4 orange beads and push them so they are resting on the line.

6.

Push your needle back down through to the stabilizer side. Try not to make it too tight, because you need to sew through the beads again.

7.

Push the needle back up through your beadwork, in-between the second and third beads. Pull the needle all the way through.

8.

Push your needle through the second and third beads, and pull the thread all the way through. Note the loop in the image below. This loop reinforces the beads.

9.

Repeat steps 4-8 until you reach the bottom of the line you are beading.

10.

Start your new row by pushing the needle up through the base of the orange shirt going in the direction of the bottom of the shirt. Follow steps 4-8 to complete this row.

11.

Repeat steps 4-9 until the entire outer edge of the shirt is beaded and tacked down.

12.

Continue to add beads until the template is covered as you like.

13.

Once the sleeves and the rest of the shirt are filled, cut off the excess felt or stabilizer. Do not cut too close to the threads, or the beads may fall off.

14.

Use a tiny amount of the fabric glue to secure the knot in place.

15.

Attach the pin. Some are designed to be sewn onto the felt, and you may need to do so before you begin beading. Some must be glued to a smaller piece of felt; and that piece glued to the back of your beaded creation. This step can be done last.

And, you're done!

Wear your pin now and year-round, reflecting on its meaning and importance.

Note:
Beading for little ones
If younger children and those with smaller hands want to participate, consider incorporating simpler beading projects and using larger materials such as:

Pony Beads

Perler beads, laced or melted

Pipe cleaners

Yarn or ribbon for stringing, with tape added on one end to make point

Or using white glue, attach the beads straight to a piece of orange foam or felt

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Learn about the meaning behind the Orange Shirt Day symbol, beading, and steps for creating a beaded orange shirt pin.

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tidanick tapy thing

Titanic thing- information cards each containing a person and where they're from, their history, how they were affected by residential schools

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hey guys fun fact did you know that 467 million idigenous people globally with diverse cultures around the world maintain strong ties to their lands and histories prior to colonization there lands including meti first nations including the inuit people another fun fact is that they eat a soup called three sister soup.