The first Orange Shirt Day was celebrated on Sept. 30, 2013, in honor of Native American and Indigenous boarding school survivors, descendants and deceased students.
These boarding schools were created by the federal government and religious missionaries to assimilate Native American and Indigenous children into Western culture and to eradicate the practice of their traditional culture, language and ceremony. The day is known as “Orange Shirt Day” after former student Phyllis Webstad shared her story of her first day at boarding school in which her favorite orange shirt was taken away. Sept. 30 has been annually declared Orange Shirt Day in recognition of the harm that the Native American and Indigenous boarding school system did to generations of Native American and Indigenous families and communities. The Ohio State Community will be observing Orange Shirt Day by asking everyone to wear an orange shirt on Sept. 30.
Contact Madison Eagle, eagle.41@osu.edu to find out how to receive the official Orange Shirt.
