Orange shirts decorated by students at Great Lakes Secondary School in Sarnia. (File photo from the GLSS facebook page)Orange shirts decorated by students at Great Lakes Secondary School in Sarnia. (File photo from the GLSS facebook page)
Sarnia

Free movie night to promote Orange Shirt Day

A local Indigenous centre is hosting a free movie night to raise awareness for Sunday's Orange Shirt Day.

The Sarnia-Lambton Native Friendship Centre will be showing Indian Horse Thursday, September 27 at Great Lakes Secondary School at 4:30 p.m. and 6:30 p.m.

Spokesperson Alabama Bressette says the film will look to educate people and promote awareness about the Indian residential school system.

"[The film] is about a young male who played hockey while attending residential schools, and we're showing it to get the word out about what the day is," she said. "[It shows] why we're supporting our elders, and the ones that walked before us and the things that they went through, and how we're trying to move forward from that."

Orange Shirt Day was started in Williams Lake, BC in 2013.

It's called orange shirt day because Phyllis Webstad was given a new orange shirt by her grandmother to wear when she was removed from her home in British Columbia and taken to a residential school.

The event is now held annually across Canada on September 30 because it was historically around that time Indigenous children were taken from their homes. The Lambton-Kent District School Board is holding its Orange Shirt Day on today.

The event encourages Canadians to wear an orange shirt and learn more about the history of the residential school system.

The movie is rated PG13, so children must be accompanied by an adult.

Students at Great Lakes Secondary School decorating orange shirts. September 22, 2018. (Photo from the GLSS facebook page)Students at Great Lakes Secondary School decorating orange shirts. September 22, 2018. (Photo from the GLSS facebook page)

Logo for the Sarnia Lambton Native Friendship Centre. (Photo from the organization's facebook page)Logo for the Sarnia Lambton Native Friendship Centre. (Photo from the organization's facebook page)

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