Orange Shirt Day & Truth and Reconciliation
September 30 · National Day for Truth and Reconciliation
Orange Shirt Day
Every child mattered. Every child still matters.
Why an orange shirt
In 1973, a six-year-old girl named Phyllis Webstad arrived for her first day at St. Joseph Mission Residential School near Williams Lake, British Columbia. She was wearing a new orange shirt her grandmother had bought her.
It was taken away. She never got it back.
Orange Shirt Day began in 2013 to keep that story, and the stories of every child who went to a residential school, from being forgotten. In 2021 the Government of Canada made September 30 a federal statutory day of commemoration. Wearing orange is a small, visible way of saying that every child mattered, and still matters.
“I finally get it, that feeling of not mattering.”
Phyllis Webstad, founder of Orange Shirt Day
Where we stand
Shirtvana is a non-Indigenous-owned small business in Ontario. We think that is worth saying plainly on a page like this one.
If you would rather buy your orange shirt directly from an Indigenous-owned business or from the Orange Shirt Society itself, we genuinely encourage it, and we have linked both below. If you buy from us, here is exactly what happens with the money.
Donated to the Orange Shirt Society.
The collection
Orange Shirt Day designs
Printed on demand in Ontario. Free shipping across Canada. Order by September 14 to receive it before September 30.
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“Every Child Matters” T-Shirt – Footprint Heart with Medicine Wheel Colors | Indigenous Solidarity Shirt
Price range: $44.99 through $54.99 Select options This product has multiple variants. The options may be chosen on the product page -
“Every Child Matters” T-Shirt – Handprint Design | Orange Shirt Day & Truth and Reconciliation Awareness Tee
Price range: $44.99 through $54.99 Select options This product has multiple variants. The options may be chosen on the product page -
“Every Child Matters” T-Shirt – Tree of Handprints Design | Indigenous Remembrance & Awareness Tee
Price range: $44.99 through $54.99 Select options This product has multiple variants. The options may be chosen on the product page -
“Every Child Matters” T-Shirt – With Children Graphic | Truth and Reconciliation Awareness Tee
Price range: $44.99 through $54.99 Select options This product has multiple variants. The options may be chosen on the product page -
“Truth Before Reconciliation” T-Shirt – Indigenous Solidarity & Awareness Tee
Price range: $44.99 through $54.99 Select options This product has multiple variants. The options may be chosen on the product page -
“Remembering the Children” T-Shirt – Rainbow with Handprints Design | Truth and Reconciliation Awareness Shirt
Price range: $44.99 through $54.99 Select options This product has multiple variants. The options may be chosen on the product page -
“We Will Not Forget” T-Shirt – Empty Shoes Memorial Design | Orange Shirt Day & Truth and Reconciliation Tee
Price range: $44.99 through $54.99 Select options This product has multiple variants. The options may be chosen on the product page -
Every Child Matters – Eagle Feathers
Price range: $44.99 through $54.99 Select options This product has multiple variants. The options may be chosen on the product page -
Every Child Matters – Today, Tomorrow, Always – Eagle Feathers
Price range: $44.99 through $54.99 Select options This product has multiple variants. The options may be chosen on the product page
Buy from an Indigenous-owned business instead
Support
The Indian Residential Schools Crisis Line offers 24-hour support to former students and their families.
To read the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s findings and its 94 Calls to Action, visit the NCTR.