UAA students, staff, and visitors walk to remember on Orange Shirt Day [Video]

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (KTUU) – UAA students and staff gathered Monday, walking through campus wearing orange on to honor and remember those affected by and mistreated in Native American boarding schools.

The walk was a part of Orange Shirt Day, which began in 2013 and became more widespread as evidence and accounts of Indigenous boarding schools were uncovered and released in Canada and the U.S. Native American children were often mistreated, abused, and even killed at the schools.

“Every child matters,” said Dawn Randazzo, who serves as the Alaska Native, Indigenous & Rural Outreach Program Coordinator for UAA. “So by remembering this history, it’s showing that we support children that were lost in history, as a product of colonization, and it’s saying that they do matter, and we remember them, and our community still love and cares about them.”

Native American boarding schools, or Indian boarding schools, were often funded by …