On Thursday, there's a gathering in Lac du Flambeau to honor the lost children and survivors of the Residential Boarding School System.
This is the second year that Lac du Flambeau is hosting Orange Shirt Day.
It’s a day of truth and reconciliation for Native people in the United States and Canada, where residential boarding schools impacted generations of families.
In Lac du Flambeau, there was a residential boarding school from 1895 to 1932.
Children weren’t allowed to speak their language, practice their traditions or culture, see their families, or go home.
Nowadays, the tribe hosts culture, language and traditional art classes in the same building where their relatives were forbidden from practicing those very same skills.
Orange Shirt Day specifically honors Phyllis Webstad, whose favorite orange shirt was confiscated when she arrived at her boarding school in 1973 near Williams Lake in British Columbia, Canada and never returned.
The day services as a reminder of the impact these institutions have on local communities.
Lauren Abel is the projects coordinator at the tribe’s Historic Preservation Office.
“We have oral history of the severe abuse that would take place as punishment if they were to speak their language. We do have death records. So far, the ones that I have come across, I found quite a few of ones that say died of drowning and a few illnesses,” she explained.
They’ll have a list of student names at the event.
“I think there's a lot of people that don't know that their family had attended the school, until you come across the name,” said Abel.
On Thursday, the public is welcome to join the gathering from 4 to 6pm in the Bingo Hall in Lac du Flambeau.
The event is sponsored by the Lac du Flambeau’s Domestic Abuse Program, Tribal Historic Preservation, and Family Services.
They’ll open with a blessing, drumming, and songs, then get into presentations on the meaning behind Orange Shirt Day.
There’s a potluck meal, before everyone makes flags to place in front of the Tribal Historic Preservation Building, which used to be the residential boarding school.
“I think it's really important that people would learn it, and I wish there were more people that were open to learning it, the history of it,” said Abel.
People are asked to wear an orange shirt.
