Orange Shirt Day 2026: Survivors Share Stories as Canada Marks Truth and Reconciliation Geraldine Shingoose and Belinda Vandenbroeck recount their years at residential schools as Canada marks Orange Shirt Day and the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation. Canada marks Orange Shirt Day and the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation on September 30, 2026, as survivors continue to share their experiences with the public. The National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation at the University of Manitoba says more than 150,000 First Nations, Inuit and Metis Nation children attended Indian Residential Schools between 1857 and 1996. Many of those children never returned home. Children were taken from their families and communities and forcibly sent to church-run, government-funded schools that were often located far from their homes. Geraldine Shingoose was one of those children.Geraldine Shingoose Residential School StoryShe was just five years old when she was taken to a residential school. Known to many as Gramma Shingoose, she attended Muscowequan Indian Residential School in southeastern Saskatchewan for nine years, from 1962 to 1971. Shingoose grew up speaking Saulteaux, a distinct dialect of Ojibwa, and did not know English when she was forced to attend the school. She says her time there was not a good one.I got punished for speaking my language, she said. That was the first time I ever experienced anything like that as a child, and it was very traumatic for me as a little girl.In addition to the emotional, mental and physical abuse she sustained, she says the biggest impact on her life was losing her original language. I do not speak my language today, she said. I understand some of the words, but I do not speak it. The National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation documents that the schools were often underfunded and overcrowded, and that the quality of education was substandard.Children were harshly punished for speaking their own languages, and staff were not held accountable for how they treated the children, according to the NCTR website. For the last decade, Shingoose has shared her story with Manitoba students, holding speaking events with elementary, junior high, high school and university classrooms. Sharing my story brings healing for me, she said.Belinda Vandenbroeck Residential School ExperienceA lot of people come to me and say they never heard about residential school until they heard my story, and I am still meeting people like that. She says speaking about her past has not been easy, but she does it so Canadians do not forget what happened. It is important people know our true history of what happened, she added. Belinda Vandenbroeck, now 78, attended MacKay Residential School near Dauphin, Manitoba, for a decade, from 1957 to 1967.The whole time we were there, we were controlled by what we did, and how we thought, she said. It was a system that we had never been in before. Vandenbroeck was brought up by her grandparents. Sleeping with my grandmother was just the safest place on earth and then all of a sudden, I am taken from that and forced into a place with probably 30 other little girls, and we did not know each other, she said.Vandenbroeck recently returned to the school with a handful of other survivors. She described the experience as emotional. I was sitting in my Grade 1 classroom, just trying to remember things, and all I could remember was the Grade 1 teacher's face, she said. I did not feel good about myself when I left there.It felt like not being recognized for who you are, and not being aware of your culture. I left there kind of empty in a sense, because you had no sense of connecting with your culture at the time. September 30 marks the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation, also known as Orange Shirt Day.National Day for Truth and Reconciliation OriginsThe federal government implemented the day in June 2021, following the discovery of 215 unmarked graves on the grounds of a former residential school in Kamloops, British Columbia. Indigenous historian and academic Sean Carleton, who works at the University of Manitoba, says the day is important for survivors.It is recognition for many survivors, who experienced the harm and trauma of the residential school system, to feel like Canadians hear them, that they understand their experiences, and that those experiences can help put the country on a better path, he said. It brings Indigenous and non-Indigenous people together, stronger, with awareness of the past, but of a clear vision of a better future.Carleton says September 30 is a day for Canadians to learn and hear from the survivors themselves. It is important to make sure that while survivors are still with us, that we commit their experience to common knowledge, so that we can continue to carry those lessons forward to make sure that we continue to work towards progress on truth and reconciliation for the betterment of everybody, he said.Survivor Stories Resilience And LossThe stories of Shingoose and Vandenbroeck illustrate the cultural and linguistic losses caused by residential schools, as well as the resilience of survivors who continue to speak out. Shingoose's challenges in speaking Saulteaux today underscore the fragility of heritage when a generation is severed from it. By recounting her past in classrooms, she aims to prevent future generations from overlooking the injustices that occurred.She says sharing her story itself acts as a form of therapy, allowing her to process the trauma that once left her feeling empty. Vandenbroeck's emotional return to the school she attended reinforces the urgency of remembrance. In Canada's journey toward reconciliation, the voices of survivors serve as both witness and warning, compelling the nation to preserve collective memory, engage in meaningful dialogue, and work relentlessly toward reparative justice. National memorials such as Orange Shirt Day are more than symbolic.They represent a conscious choice to listen, learn and act, and they encourage Canadians to educate themselves on survivors' experiences. The collective memory of the residential school era is both an account of pain and a chronicle of resilience. As scholars and survivors alike articulate, the path forward lies in acknowledging the past, celebrating Indigenous voices, and ensuring that history never repeats itself.