Moonwake Magazine would like to acknowledge the traditional, ancestral, unceded territory of the Lkwungen (Lekwungen) peoples, and the Songhees, Esquimalt, and W̱SÁNEĆ First Nations on which we are learn, work and organize.
When Kristin Spray and Eddy Charlie met in the Camosun College’s Indigenous Studies Program in 2014, neither of them knew how quickly their friendship would blossom. Over the next nearly ten years, the two have gone on to establish Orange Shirt Day Victoria and have had an incredible impact on not only each other but the Island community and beyond.
“Within the first week, we were asked by our instructor what it was we hoped for in this program,” Kristin reminisced on her time as one of only two non-Indigenous students in the program, “I said I wasn't sure of my place of belonging based on being non-Indigenous, not feeling like I knew much of what had gone on on these lands, and feeling really devastated and guilty about it. And I said, ‘I'd really love a place of belonging.’”
Kristin’s answer sparked the attention of Eddy, one of her classmates. As a survivor of a Canadian Residential School, Kristin’s yearning for belonging touched his heart and resonated with him deeply.
“Every time my father, when he was young, went to look for work, they wouldn't hire him because he was Indigenous,” Eddy shared, “All [my family] wanted was to have a place where we could belong, a place that we could call home. So when Kristin used that same term, it really broke my heart and meant a lot to me.
It made me really emotional because one, I'm Indigenous, two, I am deaf, and three, I'm a Residential School survivor. So I'm not liked by my own community and I'm not liked by the non-Indigenous community.”
Eddy and Kristin explained their friendship first bloomed over a lunchtime conversation full of shared food and laughter.
“Eddy shared where he was from, and that his grandfather always said there's room in the circle for everyone. To me, that meant a lot,” Kristin said.
“Eddy and I were older students in the class, so I also knew that what he said kind of created an open door and a model of potential friendship within the class with more people and made me feel a lot safer in terms of like, this was the right decision to do.”
Soon, Eddy opened up about his time in a Residential School, an opportunity to listen and learn that Kristin held very close to her heart. Eddy shared intimate, personal details of a time which took his culture, tradition and language away from him and so many others.
Eddy, a member of the Cowichan Nation, was born in a time where Residential Schools were at its peak in Canada. When Eddy was only four and a half years old, he was forcefully taken from his family to Kuper Island Residential School, changing the course of his life and future generations.
“As a child that was taken away from home, there are not a lot of people that understand the full story and I really want people to know about the story.”
It was difficult to share, but Eddy did so with Moonwake Magazine, speaking bravely and eloquently about everything he experienced during his childhood and how it impacted and followed him throughout the rest of his life. It is a recollection of abuse, physical, emotional, psychological and sexual. It is a generation of lost culture and identity.
“They abused us so bad that we became one of the most perfect hate machines ever. And then they released us back into our community and our own families. They hated us because of what we brought home and we taught the younger generation how to hate just as much as we taught the younger generation how to cope with that in the same way we were.”
In 2021, The Penelakut Tribe in B.C.'s Southern Gulf Islands announced it had found more than 160 undocumented and unmarked graves in the area that was once the Kuper Island Residential School, the same school Eddy was forced to attend.
“A lot of us were shocked, and many of us were very overwhelmed with fear, hurt and anger. I say hurt and anger because we were running around, playing around on those grounds where children were buried,” Eddy explained.
“Today, we have to deal with the trauma of the pain and suffering that we experienced as tiny children. Whenever they make announcements on TV or news and say, we uncovered more graves, they don't think about the mother.”
During their time in the Indigenous Studies program at Camosun College, Eddy and Kristin were able to hear Phyllis Webstad share her story of having her shiny orange shirt taken from her at the age of six when she arrived at
St. Joseph Mission Residential School.
“A group of us students got together on the 30th and we wore orange. But that was a handful of us on a campus that between the two campuses, there are over 18,000 students,” Kristin said.
“Knowing that there was so much I didn't know growing up, I imagined there's a whole lot of other people who didn't know, and a lot of people didn't even know what TRC was or that it even happened or went on.
So I started to ask Eddy if he would consider working together.”
It took a year, with Eddy understandably hesitant to join, afraid of what the trauma may do to himself and others. However, when Kristin, Eddy and the rest of the students returned to school for their second year,
Eddy agreed to help.
“Within three weeks, we quickly pulled together our first campus ceremony at Camosun, and we contacted Phyllis Webstad to see if it was okay to ask permission,” Kristin said.
Permission was granted and soon, the head of the Indigenous department and the President of Camosun College agreed to work alongside Eddy and Kristin.
“We thought it's a whole other year before we were going to have another ceremony. Why don't we reach out to friends who are teachers or have businesses and start offering to come and share about these truths while we are still students?”
By this time, Eddy and Kristin had made many community connections, such as Cedar Hill Middle School and the Oak Bay High Indigenous Perspective Society. Within the second year of Eddy and Kristin’s program, Camosun mandated Orange Shirt Day would be an annual event.
“Eddy had also connected with our previous mayor, Lisa Helps, and asked her if we could make it an official day for the city, and she agreed, as long as he wrote a proclamation. At our second ceremony in 2016 at Camosun, the mayor showed up and presented this proclamation to the whole campus, and we were really grateful for that.”
After graduating in 2017, Eddy and Kristin continued to recognize the sacrifices of residential school survivors by bringing the event to the City of Victoria. Letters written by Eddy detailing why it was important to have a National Staff Holiday for Residential School Survivors and that the holiday should be created to honour them was passed through MLAs and to Ottawa and the House of Commons. The bill for National Day for Truth and Reconciliation became legislated in 2021.
When asked what moves him forward, Eddy responded with hope and change.
“Hope. Just hope. I have two grandchildren. I hurt a lot of people in my life. I'd like my kids to be able to walk without fear and to experience something, a life that they were meant to live rather than having their destiny chosen for them by an outside source,” he shared. “And I honestly believe that what we're doing can create that opportunity. So I continue to do this hope for it here. That hope for me or for my generation, because it will take too long. But if our grandchildren and our great grandchildren have the opportunity to live a life that is more gentle than the ones that we live, then it's worth it.”
In 2015, during the first Orange Shirt Day Victoria campus ceremony, attendees wore orange shirts with a sticker that said Every Child Matters. The following year, one of Eddy and Kristin’s classmates, a carver and artist from the Coast Salish nation, Bear Horne, came to the two with a vision, a gift he wanted to give to Orange Shirt Day Victoria in support.
“The bear is to help us find the right path, the eagle is to help us find a bright vision and hope for the future,” Kristin explained of the updated design created by Bear Horne.
“The hummingbirds help us in mind, body and spirit. Yes, they're messengers. And then the flowers, they help all these elements come together.”
Eddy had this design made into a flag, a flag that is flown every September 30th.
“It's a flag the legislature was in conversation with us about having and we did not feel like it was the right time in terms of where the relationship needs to be at,” Kristin explained, “And so we talked about another possibility, which was to have this shirt framed and on display at the legislature with a quote from Eddy about what reconciliation is.”
All proceeds of the sales of orange shirts and related products go towards the annual Xe Xe Smun’ Eem Orange Shirt Day Ceremony, Residential School Survivors and the continuing year-round costs of raising awareness of the effects of Residential Schools.
“There hasn't been many efforts to learn about the cultures on these lands. And so when people say, I need to learn more about this culture, you can. You need to go sit with the people in the Indigenous community. You need to hear their stories and try to appreciate their culture and tradition. I believe that if you can do that, you have a stronger appreciation for yourself," Eddy said.
"If you can appreciate your own culture, you'll have a greater value for the others around you. And that is my hope, and that's my inspiration for continuing to do the work that me and Kristin do.”
Orange Shirt Day is an annual national event held annually on September 30th in Canada to honour Residential School survivors and their families, and to remember those that never made it.
@victoriaorangeshirtday
Article by Mariah Burchell
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