On Orange Shirt Day, Sask. teachers express pain, importance of teaching students about residential schools

Tammy Ratt was among the hundreds of educators across Saskatchewan who wore an orange shirt on Friday, but she says her responsibility to mark the significance of the symbol goes beyond one day.

Ratt teaches her students about residential schools and their lasting impact at Regina's Balfour Collegiate.

Orange Shirt Day is named for the bright orange shirt given to six-year-old Phyllis Webstad by her grandmother in 1973, which she wore to her first day at a residential school — St. Joseph Mission School in Williams Lake, B.C. The school administrators took it from her.

Orange Shirt Day was established in 2013, as a day to remember the legacy of the residential school system, honour the survivors and show support for reconciliation. It's usually marked on Sept. 30, but because that day falls on a Sunday this year, it was observed at many schools on Friday.

Ratt, who has a Cree background, says teaching about residential schools is difficult.

"I feel pain, lots of pain when I teach it because it is so close to home," she said.

"I have to be aware of the kids in my classroom and the pain they have felt, the trauma they have faced because of residential schools."

I feel pain, lots of pain when I teach it because it is so close to home.- Tammy Ratt, teacher

Ratt said residential schools are the "root cause of trauma and intergenerational trauma in our [Indigenous] families," and that can be a sensitive subject.

"With the kids that don't have a personal connection, I really am clear on how they need to be careful how they speak in the room because it could be hurtful to people."

When it comes to engaging students in difficult and painful subject matter, Ratt said she uses stories from those impacted by residential schools.

"I think storytelling is the best way to teach."

Teachers can meet resistance from students

Ratt's colleague Tana Mitchell has been teaching about residential schools for years. In 2007, the province implemented mandatory treaty education for children from kindergarten to Grade 12.

Mitchell's students have spent their entire school life learning things the previous generation did not.

She said that has positives but also can mean resistance.

"One of the greatest resistances I see is students coming in feeling they know this information, they have heard it before — 'Yes, it was terrible but do we have to study this?'

"I have found more recently that the resistance is really tough to move past."

Mitchell said that's rooted in what some students want to believe about the country's history.

"This doesn't fit with what we want to know, or want to feel about our country. So I think it's a way of protecting that sterile image that we have, that peace-loving, tolerant image that we have," she said.

With that, she said she feels a certain responsibility to her students.

"I have been constructed as a white settler in this space and the least I can do is be accountable to teach for an unlearning of this Canadian narrative that we have perpetuated for so long."

In order to break down the barriers, Mitchell said she makes the learning more personal and gives students the choice of what aspect of residential schools they want to learn about.

"I've begun doing many more things related to personal stories, individualized stories to make it more real — whether that be bringing in survivors or using resources."

Even though residential school history is in the curriculum and supported by the Ministry of Education, Mitchell said teachers have a responsibility too.

"Long gone is the time when it was acceptable for all of us to just be doing little bits of this. Teachers aren't challenging ourselves to go deeper," she said.

"More needs to be entrenched in what we do curriculum-wise, policy-wise because as it is, teachers are able to side-step these things and teach them in fairly limited ways."

With files from CBC's Lenard Monkman