ManitobaFor students at one Winnipeg school, learning about truth and reconciliation has been an opportunity to learn about the harms of the past, while also learning a little bit about themselves and their own identities.Day is important ‘to remember that it happened, to make sure that it doesn’t happen again,’ student saysDave Baxter · CBC News · Posted: Sep 29, 2025 10:18 PM EDT | Last Updated: 3 hours agoStaff and students at Winnipeg’s École Robert H. Smith School donned orange shirts and gathered for an assembly on Tuesday to commemorate the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation, a day also known as Orange Shirt Day, which lands on Sept. 30. (Randall McKenzie/CBC)Students at Winnipeg’s École Robert H. Smith School are learning about the history of the residential school system and relating it to their own sense of self, and connections with others.School principal Adam Dyck said every year leading up to Sept. 30, students learn about residential schools while also focusing on different themes linked to the schools’ history. This year’s theme is centred around the question “who am I?””Because what was lost in residential schools and in students going to residential schools really was the sense of self and identity, especially in the context of family,” Dyck said. Staff and students at the River Heights-area school donned orange shirts and gathered for an assembly on Tuesday to commemorate the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation, a day also known as Orange Shirt Day, which lands on Sept. 30. The day is held to honour the more than 150,000 Indigenous people in Canada who were forced out of their homes and separated from their families to attend residential schools, while the residential school system ran for more than a century. École Robert H. Smith School principal Adam Dyck said he believes it is important to continue teaching students about the history of residential schools. (Randall McKenzie/CBC)Dyck hopes students use what they have learned to “really identify who they are, what their strengths are, what their gifts are, and how they connect with their community and with each other.”He added it is important for students to have as much of a true understanding as possible about what children lived through in residential schools.”The two parts of truth and reconciliation are the truth, which is knowing and understanding what has happened, and reconciliation, being the part where we come back in harmony as a people,” he said. “It’s a very powerful thing to know the harms that were done, so we can make amends.”Staff and students at the school also took part in a community walk on Tuesday to honour those who attended residential schools. Grade 5 student Beth Fennell said she believes it is necessary for students to continue learning about residential schools, even if some of what they are learning can be difficult. École Robert H. Smith School grade 5 student Beth Fennell said she believes it is important for students to keep learning about residential schools, even if some of what they are learning can be difficult. (Randall McKenzie/CBC)”I think it’s very important that we all remember residential schools and that we wear orange shirts on Sept. 30,” Fennell said. “We have Orange Shirt Day to remember that it happened, to make sure that it doesn’t happen again.” ABOUT THE AUTHORDave Baxter is an award-winning reporter and editor currently working for CBC Manitoba. Born and raised in Winnipeg, he has also previously reported for the Winnipeg Sun and the Winnipeg Free Press, as well as several rural Manitoba publications.With files from Zubina Ahmed
Keep learning, even when it’s difficult: Winnipeg school marks Orange Shirt Day
