Victoria Orange Shirt Day design by local artist Bear Horne @bearhorne
This September 30th will bring the 9th anniversary of the first Orange Shirt Day Ceremony in Victoria, B.C. and the third official National Day for Truth and Reconciliation.
September 30th is a day for Canada to reflect on its colonial history that led to the horrific Residential School system and how it created lasting impacts and trauma to Indigenous communities across the nation. It is also a day to honour the survivors of Residential Schools and their families, and to remember those who did not make it.
Our Big Wheel restaurants are situated on the traditional territory of the Lekwungen peoples, known today as the Esquimalt and Songhees First Nations, and we believe that it is critical for us to both support those communities and to be educated on how the lasting effects of colonialism impacts their lives.
One way that we have been able to do this is by supporting Victoria Orange Shirt Day, whom we have worked with since 2017.
Victoria Orange Shirt Day was started by Residential School survivor Eddy Charlie and friend Kristin Spray in 2015. They had met while both attending the Indigenous Studies program at Camosun and it was there that they decided to bring Orange Shirt Day ceremony to Victoria. This year we decided as a way to further educate ourselves and understand how the community can support the cause, we would sit down to speak with Eddy and Kristin to ask them a few questions.
Calen: What does it mean to you to have the support of Victoria businesses and how does it help your organization?
Eddy: Because Kristin and I are only two people, constantly out on the frontlines, educating people and spreading awareness 
surrounding the impacts of residential schools, it is difficult to reach everybody, especially those who don’t want to listen. Having businesses supporting us through carrying our shirts and spreading the message of the impacts of residential schools gives us two some time to take a step back, take a breath, and allow someone else to carry our story for a little while.
Kristin: Relationships are extremely important to Eddy and I and are the foundation of the work that we do. Having the support of businesses can help move this beyond an orange shirt and create conversations, hope, and action. It also helps create more safe spaces for Indigenous people.
Calen: In addition to selling shirts, how can local businesses help support you and your organization?
Eddy: I have had people in city hall, in Ottawa and in schools ask me “what can we do to create further movement in regards to reconciliation?” and my answer used to be “please listen to the stories of residential school survivors” but after much thought, I believe there needs to be more than just listening to these stories. People need to go inside Indigenous communities and walk on the grounds of survivors so they can really see and understand the impacts of the intergenerational trauma caused by residential schools. There is poverty and mistreatment due to a lack of confidence in these communities. For generations, they have been told by western society that they are bad people.
Murray Sinclaire, Robert Joseph and the original creator of Orange Shirt Day, Phyllas Webstad, are all working their butts off to make people understand that residential school hurt us, continues to hurt us, and will always hurt us until Canada sits down to have a meaningful conversation with equal opportunity to let our stories be heard. That is not happening. People apologize for what happened but that is not enough. I was starved, abused, and told I was stupid in residential school. These things are still with me. So, if you want to know what more that you can do, you go into the community, you experience their culture, and you listen to their stories in a setting where they are comfortable. Learn how to feel and empathize with their experiences, because only when you hear it over and over will you truly get the big picture painted for you. Kristin and I have been doing this for 9 years and every September 30th it feels like we start all over again.
I believe that businesses, as a form of reconciliation, should send their staff out into the community and participate in ceremonies with people who went to residential school. Watch how those people interact and speak with them on their terms. People need to hear their stories.
Kristin: Like Eddy said, when he feels like we start all over again every September, there are ways businesses can help those conversations continue throughout the year. Sharing on social media, sharing our media and as well as other organizations is always welcomed and encouraged. In addition to our organization, some other folks doing amazing work are the Orange Shirt Society which Phyllis Webstad started, the Indian Residential School Survivors Society, the Indigenous Perspectives Society and many more. Get creative, like this conversation we are having, which will be posted on Big Wheels platforms. We have also collaborated with Discovery Coffee to make a coffee blend to raise money for survivors.
These types of collaborations are important in keeping reconciliation happening throughout the entire year. Some things that we do that can be utilized by businesses who want to get involved include two educational videos that we created with Saanich Parks and Recreation. We made them in collaboration with our friend Diane Sam from the Songhees Nations. In the video she speaks about being an intergenerational survivor, to help give viewers more understanding of the long-lasting impacts of residential schools. This resource, like others, are used in our talking circles which are speaking events that businesses, schools, or governments can host to educate their communities. I like this question because I think there is a lot more that people can be doing and I think it all starts around conversations. It is also important to ask Indigenous people themselves what they want and with permission share those words and thoughts with the outside community.
Calen: What is the story behind the art on your orange shirts and how did you decide to use this particular design?
Eddy: The story goes back ten years when Kristin and I met at Camosun College. Our instructor had told us about Phyllis Webstad starting Orange Shirt Day to raise awareness for those affected by residential schools and when we learned about this, we wondered why Victoria does not have an Orange Shirt Day. When September 30th, 2014 rolled around, there was very limited participation at Camosun College with only about 25-30 people wearing orange. After this, Kristin asked me if I wanted to participate in continuing to build awareness around the impacts of residential schools but at the time, I was not at all interested in doing so. What changed my mind was Kristin’s persistence as well as a time when I was working in the library at Camosun and I overheard students saying “I hate those Indians, all they talk about is residential school. They get a lot of money and don’t work, don’t go to school, they don’t do anything.” After hearing this, I stopped what I was doing and tried to do some research on Google about residential schools and found practically no information, the results did not even mention Phyllis Webstad. I then became determined to bring awareness of these topics to Victoria.
I decided if I was going to join Kristin in this project, we would have to figure out a certain way of going out to the community and talking to people. We would need to get to the root cause of all of the trauma in Indigenous communities, which we now know is residential schools. We would have to talk about what happened to these children, how long they were abused, and what happened to them when they got home from these schools. As a way to share this information and what Kristin and I wanted to do, I went to local government buildings and schools to build relationships and ask if we could come and educate people about the trauma caused by residential schools but they did not understand me or what I was trying to do. When this wasn’t working I made a pamphlet and a Facebook page as a way to start spreading our message and I showed Kristin. We talked to the dean at Camosun College, showed him our Facebook page and the research we had been doing, and asked to hold an event at the school for Orange Shirt Day, 2015.
We talked to Indigenous artist Carey Newman, Laurel Collins, various schools, and elders from local reserves to invite them to the event and speak. Many of the people we talked to came to the event at Camosun and spoke, making it powerful and impactful. Our classmate, Bear Horne, who acted as the MC for the event, told me after the event wrapped up that he had a vision in his dream where he created a piece of art to give to Kristin and I to use for our platform. That is the art that you see on our shirts.
Kristin: When Bear created this artwork for us he provided us with the meaning: ‘The bear to help us follow the right path, the eagle to help us have vision of a bright future, and the hummingbird to keep our mind, body and spirit. The flower to feed the connection of all these elements’ and, I also like to think of the flowers representing the land. We continue to use this design because of the story behind it and how symbolic it is. Over the years this design has become such a significant symbol seeing it in store front windows sends a message to people and it represents both the ongoing impacts of residential schools, and also how things can change and the hope we can have if we work together. Bear Horne offered this design as a gift for the work that we do and we try to honour him in everything that we do with this design.
Calen: How has Victoria Orange Shirt Day changed and evolved since first working with Big Wheel seven years ago? I remember when you guys first came to me in 2017, asking for Big Wheel to sell orange shirts, it was a very small operation and a new concept to the city. Now it is a nationally recognized holiday and you guys have become staple figures within the Victoria community. Has it been healing to see this project grow?
Kristin: We had our first ceremony at Camosun in 2015 and then in 2016, we invited Mayor Lisa Helps to the ceremony and Eddy wrote a proclamation, making Orange Shirt Day an official day in Victoria. 2017 was the first year we worked alongside the city to have a larger ceremony.
Eddy: And 2016 was the first year we made the shirts with Bear Horne’s design.
Kristin: Back in 2015, when Eddy, myself and our classmates were inspired by Phyllis Webstad to participate in Orange Shirt Day, we struggled to find any orange clothing.
Even at Value Village we could not find any. It wasn’t a popular colour. By 2021, things had switched and in North America, all orange inventory was sold out. Orange Shirts had become so popular that we could not even order anymore.
I also believe that the things we do here have impacted places beyond our borders. In the US, there is a bill being passed (1723). This bill establishes the Truth and Healing Commission on Indian Boarding School Policies in the United States, which is highly inspired by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission that has happened here in Canada. There has been a ripple effect in making it okay to talk about this stuff and to help people feel validated.
Eddy: Despite all the hard work Kristin and I have done, it is rarely mentioned by the Legislature or the House of Commons. When the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation was signed into place at the House of Commons, Kristin and I were not invited to attend nor were our names mentioned. I had an elder come up to me one day and she said “even if they don’t ever mention your name, I know you are responsible for this happening. Don’t get angry or upset because you have created a huge platform for these things to be talked about for generations.”
Kristin: I also want to add that you (Calen) being so willing to sell our shirts from the get-go is something that we are so grateful for. Not everyone would listen to Eddy and I when we first started and with generous folks like yourself believing in us we have been able to support people in rural communities, send them to funerals, and even pay for a woman’s emergency eye surgery. There are different ways to support us and the cause. Even my parents and family being so generous to lend us space in their home to act as the orange shirt factory, having that extra support allowed us to spend more time in Indigenous communities. Relationships that have become friendships and not just business related are responsible for the growth of our organization over the last seven years.
Eddy: Kristin and I had done something very original. When we first started we were not sure if it was going to work or not, until Rachelle Dallaire, from Indigenous Perspectives Society, left us a message at the front desk at Camosun to invite us to join them to watch a panel they were hosting. What I saw them do inspired me to keep going. We also brought Phyllis Webstad to Victoria and we showed her how we speak in the community and she was inspired by us to start publicly speaking about residential schools in Williams Lake. So when you say “evolved” we are talking about two seedlings, Kristin and I, going out into the community and creating something that people liked and wanted to copy. We started from seedlings and just allowed ourselves to grow and to inspire through speaking, listening and learning. To me that is the biggest step towards reconciliation, being present and allowing people to include their presence in the conversation.
Calen: What are other resources that you recommend for people to further educate themselves on the purpose of Orange Shirt Day and the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation?
Eddy: There is an Indigenous Perspective Society in Langford and they offer courses on reconciliation. I have seen BC Nurses, governments, and ICBC partake in these courses to learn about the effects of colonization, specifically about residential schools. It is a course that can be a week long, a day or half a day that allows people to truly understand the impacts on Indigenous communities.
Residential school survivors are walking talking history books because this history was not documented. There are few survivors still alive and if the last survivor were to die tomorrow, it would be like all those bad things did not happen.
If you or a friend are experiencing distress due to the impacts of residential schools, please contact the 24-Hour Residential School Crisis Line at 1-866-925-4419 for emotional support.