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Orange Shirt Day
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Orange Shirt Day
The Carlisle Indian Industrial School was founded by colonialist and white supremacist Richard Henry Pratt in 1879. He designed the residential school program as an intentional act of genocide, on this principal:
“All the Indian there is in the race should be dead. Kill the Indian in him, and save the man.”
That, my friends, is how white supremacy veils violence as charity. These ‘schools’ were designed to obliterate Indigenous families and traumatize or kill children throughout Turtle Island – destroying their culture, family ties, incarcerating them in places where they would be abused and neglected, and indoctrinating the next generation into white supremacy and white culture.
When is it?
- September 30
Read:
- When We Were Alone (Ages 3+)
- When I Was Eight (Ages 6+)
- Not My Girl (Ages 6+)
Discuss:
- What is trauma?
- What is generational trauma?
- What does it mean when a targeted person affirms: “Our existence is our resistance“?
- Whose responsibility is it to speak the truth about history and injustice?
Take Action:
- Tell your schools, communities, and friends about #OrangeShirtDay: Why we observe it, and the impact of residential schools on Indigenous people today.
Additional resources to dig deeper into this topic:
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