September 30 is the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation. It is a day to honour the children who never returned home from residential schools, the Survivors who did, and the families and communities that continue to live with the consequences. It is also a day for every Canadian to learn the truth—not as a closed chapter of history, but as the foundation required for meaningful reconciliation.
The day is not meant to be treated simply as another holiday or day off work. Public commemoration, listening to Survivors and understanding the policies that created the residential school system are essential parts of reconciliation.
Content notice: This article discusses residential schools, child removal, abuse and intergenerational trauma. The National Residential School Crisis Line provides support for former residential school students at 1-866-925-4419. Indigenous people across Canada can also contact the Hope for Wellness Help Line at 1-855-242-3310 or use its online chat.
What does Truth and Reconciliation Day represent?
The National Day for Truth and Reconciliation recognizes the tragic history and continuing legacy of Canada’s residential school system. According to the Government of Canada, the day honours Survivors, their families and communities, and remembers the children who never returned home.
“Truth” comes first for a reason. Reconciliation cannot be built on silence, denial or an incomplete telling of Canadian history. It requires acknowledging what governments and churches did, listening to the experiences recorded by Survivors, preserving those records, and understanding how the damage continues through families and communities.
“Reconciliation” is the continuing work of repairing relationships between Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples. It includes education, justice, child welfare, health, language and culture, commemoration, accountability and concrete changes to institutions. It is not a single ceremony or a task that can be completed in one day.
The residential school system
Church-run boarding schools for Indigenous children existed before Confederation, but after 1867 the federal government expanded and funded a national system intended to separate First Nations, Inuit and Métis children from their families, languages, cultures and identities. The policy was assimilation.
More than 150,000 Indigenous children attended residential schools. The federal government identifies 140 federally run schools operating between 1867 and 1996, although the broader history includes earlier institutions and other schools outside that count. Children were often taken far from home. Many were forbidden to speak their languages or practise their cultures. Survivors described hunger, neglect, harsh punishment, forced labour, emotional harm, physical and sexual abuse, and the lasting pain of separation from family and community.
In 1920, amendments to the Indian Act made attendance compulsory for many First Nations children within a prescribed age range. Parents and communities faced the power of the state when trying to keep their children home. The last federally run residential school, Gordon’s Indian Residential School in Saskatchewan, closed in 1996—within the lifetime of many Canadians reading this today.
The harm did not end when the schools closed. Survivors and their descendants have experienced intergenerational effects connected to disrupted parenting, lost language and cultural knowledge, family separation, discrimination, poorer health outcomes and unresolved trauma. At the same time, Indigenous communities have shown extraordinary strength in preserving and revitalizing their cultures, languages, families and systems of knowledge.
Survivors forced Canada to confront the truth
For decades, Survivors spoke about what had happened, often while institutions and much of the public failed to listen. Their advocacy, court cases and demands for accountability eventually led to the Indian Residential Schools Settlement Agreement, which came into effect in 2007.
On June 11, 2008, Prime Minister Stephen Harper delivered a formal apology in the House of Commons on behalf of the Government of Canada. The settlement agreement also created the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada.
The Truth and Reconciliation Commission travelled across the country, gathered records and heard testimony from thousands of people affected by residential schools. Its mandate was to inform all Canadians about what happened and to document the experiences of Survivors, families and communities.
When the Commission completed its work in 2015, it released a final report and 94 Calls to Action. Those Calls to Action provide a practical roadmap for redressing the legacy of residential schools and advancing reconciliation across areas including education, child welfare, health, justice, language, media, sport and government responsibility.
Why September 30 and the orange shirt?
September 30 was already known as Orange Shirt Day before it became a federal statutory holiday. The Indigenous-led grassroots movement grew from the experience of residential school Survivor Phyllis Webstad.
When Phyllis was six years old, she arrived at St. Joseph Mission Residential School in British Columbia wearing a new orange shirt given to her by her grandmother. School staff took away her clothing, including the orange shirt. Her story came to represent the way the residential school system stripped children of dignity, identity, culture, freedom and self-worth.
The first Orange Shirt Day was held in 2013. Its message—Every Child Matters—affirms that every child deserves safety, dignity, love, family and respect. Wearing orange can show solidarity, but the meaning should not be reduced to clothing alone. Learning and action are what give the symbol substance.
How September 30 became a national day
Call to Action 80 asked the federal government, in collaboration with Indigenous peoples, to establish a statutory holiday to honour Survivors, their families and communities and to ensure that public commemoration of residential school history remains a vital part of reconciliation.
Federal legislation received Royal Assent in June 2021, and the first National Day for Truth and Reconciliation was observed on September 30, 2021. It is a federal statutory holiday. Whether it is a statutory holiday for other workers depends on provincial or territorial employment rules, but its meaning applies to the entire country.
How Canadians can respectfully mark the day
- Listen to Survivors and Indigenous educators without expecting them to carry the entire burden of teaching.
- Learn about the residential schools that operated closest to your community.
- Read the TRC’s Calls to Action and examine which ones relate to your workplace, school, profession or local government.
- Attend a public event led or supported by local Indigenous organizations, while respecting event protocols.
- Wear orange and understand the story behind it.
- Support Indigenous authors, artists, journalists, businesses and community organizations.
- Talk with children in an age-appropriate and honest way about residential schools and why Every Child Matters.
- Avoid treating the day as a celebration, a marketing opportunity or simply a long weekend.
Support the Orange Shirt Society
Orange Shirt Day grew from residential school Survivor Phyllis Webstad’s experience and became a national movement centred on the message that Every Child Matters. The Indigenous-led, Survivor-founded Orange Shirt Society supports education, Survivor voices and ongoing reconciliation programs.
Reconciliation requires more than remembrance
Commemoration matters because forgetting allows injustice to be minimized or repeated. But remembrance is only the beginning. Reconciliation also requires governments, churches, institutions and individuals to address continuing inequalities and to act on responsibilities identified by Survivors and the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.
September 30 asks Canadians to pause, listen and learn. The deeper responsibility continues on October 1 and every day after that: to tell the truth accurately, reject denial, respect Indigenous rights and support the long work of rebuilding relationships.
Verified sources and further learning
- Government of Canada — National Day for Truth and Reconciliation
- National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation — Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada
- National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation — 94 Calls to Action
- National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation — Residential School History
- National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation — Residential School Timeline
- National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation — Orange Shirt Day and September 30
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