Students at Greentree Elementary School celebrated National Indigenous Peoples Day on Monday, June 21 with several activities focused on honouring, celebrating, and learning about Indigenous peoples.
The school was decorated with hanging orange heart decorations throughout the hallways.
Grade 5 students Elliot Gamble and Drew Hatch told the Mail students decorated the main foyer with a poster emblazoned with “Every Child Matters” along with a total of 215 orange figures. These figures represent the 215 children found in a mass grave at the former grounds of the Kamloops Residential School in British Columbia in May 2021.
One of the planned activities for students was a ribbon tying ceremony. Classes gathered individually in the outdoor classroom to tie orange ribbons to the fence.
Along with the ribbon tying ceremony, students also read books about Indigenous peoples and learned about residential schools.
Although Orange Shirt Day is held annually on September 30, students and teachers were welcomed to wear orange shirts as part of the celebrations, in honour of residential school survivors and in recognition of the harmful impact of residential schools.
