This year’s Orange Shirt Day Celebrations was one to remember. Coinciding with the first ever National Day for Truth and Reconciliation, these special events brought so many together to honour the experiences of Residential School Survivors, celebrate local Indigenous culture and discuss the essential roles of care and kinship.

From musical performances to storytelling, our Orange Shirt Day Celebrations were full of moments for reflection, joy and looking forward to how we can continue to learn and take action. Day two featured a panel discussion called Expanding Our Relations: Oral concepts of understanding. The stories our panelists shared impressed on us that Truth and Reconciliation goes beyond Orange Shirt Day. It is an ongoing, everyday process. You can watch the full video here.

Although it’s difficult to capture our Orange Shirt Day in just a few words, here are some of our favourite moments:

Photos by Blake McLeod

Thank You!

Thank you to everyone who participated and supported this year’s celebrations!

We would like to extend a special thank you to our generous sponsors who made this event possible:

TC Energy

Imperial Oil

Mission Wealth Raymond James

Arc Resources

Calgary Foundation

Horizon Housing

We are also very grateful for the support of our Orange Shirt Day T-Shirt sales, which went towards our Iiyika'kimaat youth program. Orange Shirt Society, Moonstone Creations, the Calgary Farmer's Market and the Aboriginal Friendship Society of Calgary all made a huge difference by helping to deliver hundreds of orange shirts, connecting people with us for sales and providing space where we could share about our initiatives.

Finally, thank you to all of our guest speakers for sharing their gifts, teachings, lived experiences and insights:

Elder Jackie Bromley 

Crystal Many Fingers 

DeRic Starlight 

Henri Giroux 

James Guthrie 

Janet Naclia 

Paige Yellowhorn 

Rochelle Bare Shin Bone