Every Child Matters – Orange Shirt Day
On Sept. 30, up to 150 College of Nursing students and staff will participate in Every Child Matters – Orange Shirt Day, an event conceptualized by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC).
Part the event involves an awareness walk, providing an opportunity for nursing students to honour the survivors of Residential Schools and recognize the multi-generational impact of Residential Schools on the current and future health status and health services of Indigenous peoples.
At 10:45 a.m., students and staff will walk from the Helen Glass Centre for Nursing to the National Research Centre for Truth and Reconciliation (NRCTC). At the end of their walk they will deliver a pledge to the NRCTC. Written by the Nursing Students Association and the Canadian Nursing Students Association, the pledge says students will practice culturally safe nursing care and will ally “with Indigenous children, youth, and their families to create an environment that supports, affirms, and celebrates all peoples.”
What: Every Child Matters – Orange Shirt Day
When: Awareness walk begins at 10:45; delivery of pledge to National Center for Truth and Reconciliation shortly thereafter
Where: Helen Glass Centre for Nursing and National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation (177 Dysart Rd.), Fort Garry campus
“I think that one of the most important outcomes is to realize that we as a society are only at the beginning of reconciliation and that we all have a role to play,” says Elaine Mordoch, associate professor in the College of Nursing. “We hope that this event will kindle ongoing conversations and thoughts about what reconciliation may look like and how future nurses (our students) will enact that responsibility in health care.”
This event builds upon the success of the College’s previous events, such as the Inuit Residential Schools experience, which helped U of M students consider the inter-generational effects of the residential school experience on Inuit survivors, their families and their current health and social problems.