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Orange Shirt Day In Northern Michigan

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Orange Shirt Day, or National Day of Remembrance for Indian Boarding Schools, is about education for survivors and their allies.

The orange shirt symbolizes the actual orange shirt taken from a young, Native American girl when she was taken to a boarding school in Canada. A Canadian national holiday, it’s also a significant date in America. It’s held in the fall when most young Native American children would be taken from their families to the schools.

Holy Childhood Boarding School in Harbor Springs is one such place. It closed in the 1980s with many survivors still living today.

Meredith Kennedy is a fourth generation survivor of the school.

“Personally, it’s a matter of everyone gets that this is our front yard,” she says. “Harbor Springs is one of the last Indian boarding schools to close in the nation, but people don’t want to see picturesque Harbor Springs like that.”

This day means more to her than remembering the cultural genocide, but educating every community about what happened, in order to move forward.

“Todays is about bringing awareness and the healing that needs to be done in the community,” she says. “This is not past generations. All of these schools have historically impacted indigenous people.”

A vigil for Orange Shirt Day or National Day of Remembrance for Indian Boarding Schools was held Thursday night at Holy Childhood. There was also a moment of silence held in Grand Traverse County that afternoon.

A video of the vigil at Holy Childhood will be posted . There you can also learn more about resources for those families affected by the boarding school.

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