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Orange Shirt Day Friendship Walk & Gathering

Wear your orange shirt on September 30, 2023 and join us as we honour residential school survivors, their families, and those who did not make it home.

Organized in partnership with the Vancouver Aboriginal Friendship Centre Society, the Vancouver Aboriginal Health Society, the Indian Residential School Survivor Society, Vancouver Aboriginal Community Policing Centre, Frog Hollow Neighbourhood House, and the Vancouver Park Board.

Out of respect for the day, there will be no vending. If you would like to share songs and stories, please contact . For volunteer opportunities, please contact .

 

Schedule

9:30am
Assemble outside of the Vancouver Aboriginal Community Policing Centre (1719 Franklin Street).
 
10:00am
Walk to Grandview Park (1657 Charles Street).
 
11:30am
Welcome and sharing at Grandview Park.
 
12:00am-2:00pm
Sharing food (Elders and survivors served fist).

 

Orange Shirts

East Van Orange Shirt Day Tees designed by Heiltsuk artist KC Hall can be purchased at the Britannia Info Centre at 1661 Napier Street. Shirts are $20 each. All proceeds go to directly funding Indigenous-led programming via the Reconciliation in Action Committee.

 

Resources

Britannia's Anti-Racism and Anti-Oppression Committee sent out a community call to put together a list of readings, films, resources and other materials for non-Indigenous community members to use to learn about residential schools and reconciliation.

Please explore and share these resources on your journey to reconciliation.

 

Readings

  • 21 Things You May Not Know About the Indian Act by Bob Joseph
  • Five Little Indians by Michelle Good
  • Truth Telling by Michelle Good
  • Indian Horse by Richard Wagamese
  • A Fire Burns Within, Teachings from Ceremony and Culture by Sharon L. Acoose, PhD
  • Seven Fallen Feathers, Racism Death, and Hard Truths in Northern City by Tanya Talaga
  • Unsettling Spirit, A Journey into Decolonization by Denise M Nadeau
  • Permanent Astonishment by Tomson Highway
  • Him Standing by Richard Wagamese
  • The Wound is A World by Billy-Ray Belcourt
  • North End Love Songs by Katherena Vermette
  • Johnny Appleseed by Joshua Whitehead
  • Green Grass, Running Water by Thomas King
  • Life in the City of Dirty Water by Clayton Thomas-Muller
  • Standoff: Why Reconciliation Fails Indigenous People and How to Fix It by Bruce McIvor
  • The North-West Is Our Mother: The Story of Louis Riel's People, the Métis Nation by Jean Teillet
  • Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmell
  • Perma Red by Debra Magpie
  • Red Paint by Sasha taqʷšəblu LaPointe
  • Teaching to Transgress: Education as the Practice of Freedom by bell hooks
  • Pedagogy of the Oppressed by Paolo Friere
  • Decolonizing Education: Nourishing the Learning Spirit by Marie Battiste


Readings for Children + Youth (+ Everyone!)

  • The Orange Shirt Story by Phyllis Webstad (6-9yrs)
  • When We Were Alone by David A Robertson (4-8yrs)
  • My Name is Seepeetza by Shirley Sterling (9-12yrs)
  • I am Not A Number by Jenny Kay Dupuis (7-11yrs)
  • When We Play Our Drums, They Sing! by Monique Gray Smith & Richard Van Camp (9-13yrs)
  • The Marrow Thieves by Cherie Dimaline (13yrs+)

 

Articles, Reports, and Fact Sheets

 

Films

  • We Were Children. In this emotional film, the profound impact of the Canadian government's residential school system is shown through the eyes of two children who were forced to endure unimaginable hardships.
  • The Unforgotten. The Unforgotten features the stories of Inuit, Métis and First Nations peoples who have been forcibly sterilized, abused in hospital, forced from their homes and land and left dying in emergency department waiting rooms. Accompanied by educational resources, this film was created to raise awareness, incite reflection and spark conversations about how to make meaningful change happen in health care.
  • Now Is The Time. When internationally renowned Haida carver Robert Davidson was only 22 years old, he carved the first new totem pole on British Columbia’s Haida Gwaii in almost a century. On the 50th anniversary of the pole’s raising, Haida filmmaker Christopher Auchter steps easily through history to revisit that day in August 1969, when the entire village of Old Massett gathered to celebrate the event that would signal the rebirth of the Haida spirit.
  • Indian Horse. A film adaptation of Ojibway writer Richard Wagamese’s award-winning novel, this moving and important drama sheds light on the dark history of Canada’s boarding schools or Indigenous Residential Schools and the indomitable spirit of aboriginal people.

 

Podcasts and Audio Listening

  • CBC: Unreserved. Unreserved is the radio space for Indigenous voices—cousins, aunties, Elders, and heroes. Rosanna Deerchild guides you on the path to better understand our shared story. Learn and unlearn, laugh and become gentler in all our relations.
  • Reclaimed. Reclaimed is a weekly series on CBC Radio that explores the many worlds of contemporary Indigenous music from traditional songs and acoustic sounds to Native hip-hop, R&B, and the dancefloor-filling beats of electric powwow.
  • MEDIA INDIGENA: THE PODCAST. MEDIA INDIGENA is a weekly Indigenous current affairs podcast. Their website also features Aboriginal news, views and creative expression.
  • Don’t Call Me Resilient. Don’t Call Me Resilient is a podcast about race and racism and takes listeners deep into conversations with scholars and activists who view the world through an anti-racist lens.

 

Education Resources

  • University of Alberta – Indigenous Canada. Indigenous Canada is a 12-lesson Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) from the Faculty of Native Studies that explores the different histories and contemporary perspectives of Indigenous peoples living in Canada. From an Indigenous perspective, this course explores complex experiences Indigenous peoples face today from a historical and critical perspective highlighting national and local Indigenous-settler relations.
  • First Nations Education Steering Committee. Free class room resources for students of all ages.
     

Resources Suggested by Community Members