A St. Joseph’s Mission residential school survivor hopes to celebrate a historic step in education and reconciliation with upcoming high school graduates across the province this spring.
Phyllis Webstad helped inspire a national movement nearly 13 years ago when she shared her story in Williams Lake of her shiny orange shirt purchased by her grandmother being taken away on her first day at the notorious school. Thousands of First Nations children were forced to attend the St. Joseph’s Mission that operated as an Indian residential school near Williams Lake from 1891 to 1981.
On April 13, 2026, Webstad will be at BC Place in Vancouver where Grade 12 students are invited to join her in celebrating them being taught about residential schools and what has become known as Orange Shirt Day since kindergarten.
“I’m calling it a stepping stone on the path to truth and reconciliation in Canada,” Webstad said. “I’m putting Canada on notice that this is happening, and that students are leaving the school system having learned the history of what happened to us at residential school and they have empathy what we went through.”
When Webstad first publicly shared her story, she said she could not have fathomed what was to come.
The first Orange Shirt Day launched in 2013 in Williams Lake to honour survivors and their families as well as those who did not return home, with students across the school district participating. It has since grown to become a nationally recognized day held annually on Sep. 30, coinciding with the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation.
“I believe it’s the same when the students graduate and go out into the world that they will bring about societal change – change that I can’t even fathom today,” Webstad said, adding she also hopes students will take a stand against racism that still exists today.
“I acknowledge that it’s probably confusing for them to be learning one thing in school and then maybe going home and hearing what’s being said there but it’s my hope they can make their own decisions what they believe and what the truth is and make decisions for society.”
The survivor, who has become well recognized to students and educators across Canada, has written children’s books and educational materials over the years further sharing her truth, the Orange Shirt Day movement and the historical, generational and continual impacts of residential schools.
She recalls residential schools not a being topic of learning or discussion for many.
“The educators thank me for the resources that I’ve created because it helps them to teach about the history about residential schools and the effects,” Webstad said. “It’s getting better – it’s better than what it was in 2013.”
The celebration, in which all 2026 B.C. graduates are invited to attend at BC Place in Vancouver on Monday, April 13, will begin with a career and education expo and an artisan marketplace. It will followed by an afternoon graduation ceremony which Webstad hopes will be attended by an Indigenous and non-Indigenous valedictorian who share more about their own educational journey.
She said as well as speakers and performers, they will also be bringing in the Memorial Cloth, a 60-metre cloth by the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation. It bears the names of thousands documented children who died as a result of the residential school system.
“It’s my hope that before I die that I start to witness historically literate citizens because with the denialism and the racism that I witness today, these people are not historically literate citizens,” Webstad said.
More information on Orange Shirt Day and the upcoming celebration honouring the first B.C. graduates to complete their K-12 education with Indian residential school and Orange Shirt Day history integrated into their curriculum can be found on the Orange Shirt Society’s webpage.