The Canmore Public Library will have an information table at the Town of Canmore’s Orange Shirt Day and National Day for Truth and Reconciliation event at artsPlace on September 30, 2026, from 1:00 to 4:00 p.m.
The free event runs from 12 p.m. to 9 p.m. at artsPlace at 950 8 Avenue. It includes opening ceremonies with Stoney Nakoda leadership, language workshops, beading sessions, a reconciliation panel, and a film screening. Library staff will provide educational resources to attendees.
The National Day for Truth and Reconciliation, also known as Orange Shirt Day, is observed annually on September 30 to honour residential school survivors and remember children who never returned home. It became a federal statutory holiday in 2021 following Truth and Reconciliation Commission Call to Action 80.
The orange shirt symbol comes from Phyllis Webstad’s story of having her new orange shirt taken away on her first day at St. Joseph’s Mission Residential School in 1973, when she was six years old. Her experience has become a national symbol under the message Every Child Matters.
Canmore is within Treaty 7 territory, the traditional lands of the Iyarhe Nakoda (Stoney Nakoda) including the Bearspaw, Chiniki, and Goodstoney Nations, as well as the Tsuut’ina First Nation and the Blackfoot Confederacy. The town committed in October 2017 to advancing the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s Calls to Action.
The Canmore Public Library has made inclusion a guiding principle in its 2024-2027 strategic plan. The library hosts monthly Sharing Circles with Indigenous Elders and Knowledge Keepers, including a session on September 28, 2026, with Elder Henry Holloway, former Chief and Councillor of Chiniki First Nation.
