Orange Shirt Day - Sept. 30

Orange Shirt Day (September 30th) is a day when we honour the Indigenous children who were sent away to residential schools in Canada and learn more about the history of those schools.

Congratulations to Deneen H. a Grade 7 student from St. Thomas Aquinas Middle School. She is our Orange Shirt Day contest winner! Here is Deneen's explanation of her winning artwork: "originally I wanted the child to be looking at their ancestors, as Indigenous people go through generational trauma from the residential schools, colonization, and culture. Though since there was a chance of it being on a shirt I reconsidered and did some more research. I found the bear was a sign of strength and the symbol inside of it represented protection. The circle the bear is inside also is a symbol of the moon, which represents many things like protection and grandmother moon, who is the leader of feminine life, which is a nod to the missing and murdered Indigenous women today."