This Thursday marks the first ever National Day for Truth and Reconciliation in Canada. The Statutory holiday was created this June and acts as a day to honor and remember the victims of residential schools, their families and communities that still feel and live the impacts of them.

The Day for Truth and Reconciliation takes place on September 30, what’s been known nationally as ‘Orange Shirt Day’ in Canada for the better part of a decade. Orange Shirt Day was started by author and residential school survivor Phyllis Webstad. The story of the orange shirt goes back to when Webstad first was sent to a residential school as a child and had an orange shirt given to her by her grandmother taken from her on her first day there.

The day is a response to one of the 94 calls to action made by the truth and reconciliation commission in 2015. Of these calls to action stated in the commission’s final report, only 14 have been completed, with most others in some form of progress. The day had been passed in a bill before but died in the senate according to the official website for orange shirt day.

The last residential school was closed in 1998, making it only 23 years ago. This year, searches of five residential schools brought findings of over 1500 unmarked graves of indigenous youth. Over the course of the residential school system, there were 140 operating.

To view the Truth and reconciliation Commission’s calls to action you can see them all here. For more information on the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation, you can visit https://www.canada.ca/en/canadian-heritage/campaigns/national-day-truth-reconciliation.html