Description
Kristy McLeod is a registered Métis with family roots in the Lac St. Anne and Red River Settlements. She is currently a PhD Candidate in Curriculum and Instruction exploring Métis Identity. Her Master of Arts in Curriculum and Instruction was focused on how to create inclusive schools. She has been working as an educator in schools for the past 20+ years, both as a teacher in the K-12 system and as a sessional instructor at the University of Victoria. She was chair of the Education Committee for the Métis Nation of Victoria and a Director at Large on its board since 2021. Her focus in all things she does is to recognize the value of diverse perspectives and the importance of consultation in creating unity. Phyllis Webstad (née Jack) is Northern Secwépemc (Shuswap) from the Stswecem’c Xget’tem First Nation (Canoe Creek Indian Band). She comes from mixed Secwépemc and Irish/Scottish heritage. She was born in Dog Creek and lives in Williams Lake, BC, Canada. Because of Phyllis and her story, a simple orange shirt has become a conversation starter and national symbol to honour Residential School Survivors and their families. She has received four honorary PhDs for her activism, and in January 2025, she was a recipient of the BC Reconciliation Award and a new award was announced: the Phyllis Webstad Emerging Leaders Youth Award. Foreword by Dr. Sean Carleton (BA, MA, PhD, MRSC) an award-winning, bestselling author and historian of colonialism, capitalism, and education in Canada. He is a settler scholar and an Associate Professor in the Departments of History and Indigenous Studies at the University of Manitoba in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Treaty 1 territory and the homeland of the Métis Nation. He is currently the Associate Head, Department of Indigenous Studies.
Now in paperback!
This book invites readers to step into a space of reflection on your personal relationship with truth, reconciliation, and Orange Shirt Day.
Written in response to the increase of residential school denialism, Phyllis Webstad and Kristy McLeod have collaborated to create a book that encourages readers to face their own biases. This book challenges readers through a series of sensitive conversations that explore decolonization, Indigenization, healing, and every person’s individual responsibility to truth and reconciliation. Centered around the Orange Shirt Day movement, and a National Day for Truth and Reconciliation, these conversations encourage readers to unpack and reckon with denialism, biases, privilege, and the journey forward, on both a personal and national level.
Within each chapter, Phyllis Webstad draws on her decade of experience (sharing her Orange Shirt Story on a global level and advocating for the rights of Indigenous Peoples) to offer insights on these topics and stories from her personal journey, which co-author and Métis scholar, Kristy McLeod, helps readers to further navigate. Each section includes real denialist comments taken from social media and Kristy's analysis and response to them. Through empathy-driven truth-telling, this book offers an opportunity to witness, reflect, heal, and be intentional about the seeds we hope to plant for the future, together.