Sent on behalf of River Cornelius
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Orange Shirt Day is a time to recognize and remember the history and legacies of the residential school systems in the United States and Canada. In 1973, on Phyllis Webstad’s (Stswecem’c Xgat’tem First Nation) first day at St. Joseph’s Residential School, her shiny new orange shirt was stripped from her. Indian Residential Schools existed to assimilate Native American children and youth into Euro-American culture, often involving physical, sexual, emotional, and psychological abuse. The system forcibly separated children from their families and forbade them to acknowledge their Indigenous culture. During this time, children’s hair was shaved, their language went unspoken, families were broken apart, and trauma was inflicted onto Native communities.
On Orange Shirt Day 2021, Medicine Wheel Society is helping to raise money for Native youth at Labateyah Youth Home in Seattle, WA to honor our ancestors and care for future generations. Please consider making a contribution if you are able at this link (write “Labateyah” in the comments to ensure your contribution is directed to the youth home): https://www.unitedindians.org/donate-now/. You can learn more about Labateyah and United Indians of all tribes here: https://www.unitedindians.org/services/youth-home/.
Medicine Wheel Society is honored to share this design by River Cornelius (Oneida – Iroquois/Haudenosaunee). Skeletons are featured in the design to pay respect to the hundreds of Native children whose bones were discovered in unmarked graves at former residential school sites earlier this year. The artist uses night sky blankets in reference to a story they know of Indigenous children who were abused and, in order to escape the abuse, danced away and became stars in the night sky. The blankets are trimmed with the Skydome design that separates Turtle Island from the Skyworld, where all our ancestors are and from where Sky Woman fell. The skeletal ancestors care for their descendants by braiding their long hair and by passing on stories and songs to the parent, who then shares these traditions with their child. This is to show the resilience of Indigenous people and how continuing oral traditions allows ancestors to continue to exist. This represents caring for future generations and current living Indigenous children, to ensure our children are well taken care of and given the love and nurturing they need to grow strong, healthy, and happy – like the blooming sunflowers with one yet to bloom. Throughout all of this, Grandmother Moon continues to watch over all generations of her grandchildren through the passage of time with unconditional love.
MWS Facebook link here: https://facebook.com/MWSUW/posts/2914617105466003
