Page 7 - Sports Energy News, Cornwall, Issue No 107

www.sportsenergynews.com Issue #107 December 2021 7

SVR U15 Team Learns about the Importance of

the Orange Shirt

By Carrie Seguin

eams in the Seaway Valley Rapids AA
TAssociation have taken to wearing orange Every
Child Matters shirts while doing pre-game warm-up
at their home and away games. The association’s
executive council thought wearing these shirts was
a creative way to raise awareness about the impact
of the Residential School System on the Indigenous
community.
On Sunday, November 7th, the U15 team attended
the Akwesasne Healing Center to find out more about
what the orange shirt represents. Heriberto Eddie
Cajigas, an Outreach Worker at the center, met with
the boys to discuss residential schools, the Indian Act,
and the legacy of the orange shirt. Eddie’s message
Photo Submitted
was impactful: “We don’t blame you. What happened
because of the Residential School System happened now. These shirts stand for awareness of past Ethan Butler: “I’ve started to understand
before your time. But you, your generation, you will actions and the change that is needed to go the impact of residential schools on all
be the people who make sure something that awful forward in a good way.” the families and how hard it was and how
never happens again. You will break the chain.” they had everything stripped from their
The U15 Seaway players reacted with
Eddie’s presentation to the SVR team explained sadness, astonishment, and disbelief at lives. They lost a sense of who they are.”
that residential schools were established to assimilate Eddie’s presentation. Following are some of Eli Seguin: “I can’t believe that this
Indigenous children beginning at a young age. From the players’ reactions: kind of treatment of other people was
1831, 139 residential schools operated in Canada Owen McMillan: “I felt a great sense of even allowed. And it didn’t even end
with the last school closing in 1996. Over the 165 sadness and sympathy for all of the Indigenous that long ago. It’s awful that our country,
years, more than 150 000 children attended residential families involved. Eddie’s presentation was that’s supposed to be the best country to
schools with over 6000 resulting deaths discovered to an eye-opening experience.” live in, treated a group of people that
date. “From the age of 4, children were taken from way.”
their homes and spent school months away from Sam Turcott: “I now understand about Warren Lalone: “I was shocked to hear
their families and communities, learning English or residential schools: what they are, what they how the Indigenous people were treated.
French and mainstream religion. You were forbidden did, the result and trauma faced by Indigenous Everybody needs to love everybody.”
to speak your own language, you weren’t allowed people…it was cultural genocide.”
to practice your customs like songs and dances or
spiritual rituals, and you were even given another
name,” Eddie described to the players.
The U15 team also learned about the Indian Act,
federal policy that is used by the government to
govern several components of Indigenous status, First
Nations government, and the managing of reserve
land. Although the Act has been amended several
times, it remains in place today. Eddie explained,
“Even though the Act also lays out government
obligations to First Nations people and some changes
made did take out the discrimination that existed in
the policy before, damage was done because of it, and
that damage had a ripple effect that is still felt today.”
And so, the orange shirts. Eddie stated, “Every
Child Matters shirts are important because they call
attention to the awful past of the residential schools
and the impacts of the system on the Indigenous
community that still affect our lives now. The
orange shirts remind us about the Indian Act and the
discrimination and the separation it caused between
the people of Canada that came before us but that
still exists on many levels and in different places