In September of 2021, Chad Carpenter an Indigenous Education Worker at the Vancouver School District who is originally from Lheidli T'Enneh Nation (Prince George) began a project with students that would honour survivors of Residential Schools.
It all started with orange shirts. He began by sharing his own story of being an intergenerational survivor of residential schools. "I went into 60 classes and I unpacked the truth, a lot of the times from my perspective. I shared my personal relationship with the history of residential schools," says Carpenter. His own experience tells the story of being a grandchild of residential school survivors and a survivor of the 60s scoop. Shortly after moving to Vancouver with his mother and brothers, Carpenter and his brothers were taken from their mother and raised in a series of foster homes. "My parents had to deal with their own trauma that they then passed down to us."
Students from classes at Lord Roberts Elementary, Sir Alexander Mackenzie, Carnarvon Elementary and Lord Byng Secondary were moved by Carpenter's personal story as well as the cultural and historical lessons he gave. They then signed their names on orange t-shirts to acknowledge and support a survivor of residential schools. It was Carpenter's hope that gifting these t-shirts to residential school survivors would help them on their respective healing journeys. But first he needed a vessel for the shirts.
Click here to read the full press release.
