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A beaded orange shirt pin craft is being offered for youth in honour of Orange Shirt Day.
The Orange Shirt Day Craft Take and Make is designed for ages 13 to 17. Supplies and instructions can be picked up at all library branches.
This initiative honours Phyllis Jack Webstad’s experience as a six-year-old attending residential school in 1973. Her grandmother had saved to purchase her a bright orange shirt, which was taken from her when she arrived at the school and never returned. Her story has become a symbol associated with Orange Shirt Day and the trauma experienced by residential school survivors.
The activity also recognizes the history of the residential school system, through which approximately 150,000 First Nations, Inuit and Métis children were sent to residential schools between 1874 and 1996. The supplied information notes that more than 3,000 children are known to have died without returning home, while estimates based on unmarked graves and records indicate more than 6,000 never returned to their families.
Participants can make the beaded orange shirt pins to wear on September 30th, which serves as both Orange Shirt Day and the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation.
Supplies are limited and will be distributed on a first-come, first-served basis.
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