"First Day" Experiences

Phyllis Webstad's account of her first day at St. Joseph's Residential School became the basis for the Orange Shirt Day movement. In her account, delineated in books such as Phyllis's Orange Shirt (2019), The Orange Shirt Story (2018), Tkwelkwlól̓tse te stektits̓e7 te slexey̓em (2018), and Orange Shirt Day (2020), Phyllis described how the orange shirt her grandmother had bought for her for her first day at residential school was confiscated by the nuns upon her arrival. Many other Survivors have written or spoken about their first day at residential school. Learn more their experiences in these testimonies from the Legacy of Hope Foundation's, Our Stories, Our Strength collection. The testimonies that comprise the collection were gathered from communities across Canada, between 2004 and 2008.