Alumna Lisa Robinson, a graduate of FIFSW’s Indigenous Trauma and Resiliency program, is featured in a video honouring Orange Shirt Day

In honour of Orange Shirt Day, the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation has released two videos on the legacy of Canada’s Residential Schools. Designed for students in Grades 5-12, the videos feature residential school survivors, elders, knowledge keepers, artists and leaders from nations and cultures across the country.

Lisa Robinson, an alumna of the Factor-Inwentash Faculty of Social Work’s Indigenous Trauma and Resiliency Master of Social Work program, was featured in the first video and mentions the training that she received from Jane Middelton-Moz, an assistant professor at FIFSW who helped develop the ITR program.

Robinson is director of the Kackaamin Family Development Centre. (She appears at 28:36 in the first video: Every Child Matters: Truth – Act One.) Over 11,000 teachers in schools across Canada have registered to share the program with their students. It is expected that it will be viewed by up to 500,000 children, youth, teachers and administrators.

Started in 2013, Orange Shirt Day is recognized each year on September 30 to honour the survivors of residential schools — and to remember the many who did not survive. The last residential school in Canada closed in 1996.

U of T will be holding a virtual event from 1:00 – 2:30pm. Information on this event and a link to register is available on the Indigenous U of T homepage.

This morning U of T News published a Q & A with Shannon Simpson, director, Indigenous initiatives, about this year’s virtual Orange Shirt Day at U of T, the importance of spreading awareness about residential schools and the strong ties between anti-racism movements in the Indigenous and Black communities.