Orange Shirt Day was marked across B.C. Wednesday as residential school survivors like Verna Flanders continue their healing.
Flanders was sent to St. Michaels School in Alert Bay when she was six years old. She was there for 10 years. She said she was abused at the school..
“Yes, yes, at seven years old I was abused by the staff and a doctor who wasn’t even a doctor,” Flanders said.
Between the 1870s and 1990s, an estimated 150,000 First Nation, Inuit, and Métis children attended residential schools set up by the Canadian government and run by churches.
As many as 6,000 children died in the schools. Those who survived are left with life-lasting physical and mental scars.
“It was awful, it was terrible. The punishment we got, I don’t want to remember,” said Flanders.
Flanders said one of the happiest days of her life was when the St. Michaels residential school was torn down in February 2015.
An orange flag flew at Victoria City Hall Wednesday and Provincial Health Officer Bonnie Henry said everyone should take a moment to reflect on what it means.
“This is a day to pause and to reflect on the hardship that so many children experienced and that many carry with them to this day,” said Henry.
Dean Stoltz
