Happy Friday,
Today we remember Phyllis Webstad.
You may not know that name, Phyllis put on a brand new orange shirt and wore it with pride on her first day of school at Williams Lake, B.C.
Think how excited you were on your first day of a new school.
I can remember the pride I took finding the right shoes, clothes, lunch pail & new backpack for the first day.
New school, new teachers, new friends & new adventures.
Phyllis was just like you in her desires, hopes & fears with one difference.
She was starting at a residential school.
The teacher at her school stripped her new orange shirt & cut her hair.
“The color orange has always reminded me that my feelings didn’t matter, how no one cared. I went to a treatment center for healing when I was 27 and have been on this healing journey since then. I finally get it, that the feeling of worthlessness and insignificance, ingrained in me from my first day at the mission, affected how I lived my life for many years.”
Today is about Phyllis & the many other First Nations peoples who have been marginalized.
As we put on our orange shirts to commemorate the National Day for Truth & Reconciliation, can we personalize the act on behalf of Phyllis Webstad?
This is the ultimate truth and our way of bringing reconciliation & healing to a broken past for a hopeful future.
For all of us.
along, the road with you.
Alan
There’s a path to truth and reconciliation | Toronto Star
Opinion: We all have a role to play in reconciliation | Edmonton Journal
