Events across the state aree part of a broader, more open reckoning with the traumatic history of boarding schools for Alaska Native people.
Heather Painter’s daughter holds up her t-shirt at an Orange Shirt Day event at Alaska Native Cultural Charter School. “I’m thinking about enrolling them here,” Painter said of her children as she worked on her shirt, on Sept. 27, 2023.
“It’s part of our history,” said principal Sheila Sweetsir as she welcomed families at the door. “The more that the community learns about it, you know, the better awareness that everybody has on Orange Shirt Day.”Emma Nashookpuk holds up an orange shirt that she decorated with her brother who is a student at Alaska Native Cultural Charter School on Sept. 27, 2023.
Stiller said she didn’t learn the history of boarding schools until she was an adult. It wasn’t part of her curriculum in school or college. She said she learned it from American Indian and Alaska Native leaders who shared their stories. She called the event “primary prevention,” a healing effort that takes place before negative health effects.
“It’s always an explanation of why things are the way they are, but it’s also an enduring strength of our people. I tell them, ‘Your parents or grandparents are survivors,’” she said. “Our elders, our grandparents, our aunts, our uncles — we all know somebody who’s been affected by boarding schools, one way or another. And so one of the important things is to not forget what their stories are.”
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