The sixth annual Orange Shirt Day walk, hosted by the Tseshaht nation, will take place on National Truth and Reconciliation Day, Wednesday, September 30th 2026. As it did last year, the walk will start at Maht Mahs Gym, one of the two remaining buildings from the original Alberni Indian Residential school which shut down 53 years ago. The walk concludes at the Alberni Athletic Hall, with a celebration including food, a drum circle, survivors stories, and vendors.
Elected chief councillor for the Tseshaht First Nation, Ken Watts, said that last year’s walk was an outstanding success, and has high hopes that this year will be even bigger and better.
“I’d say last year and the year before we had over a thousand,” he said. “Last year we switched it up and we actually walked from the residential school up to the high school and [then on] to the athletic hall- and I’d argue it was one of the best ones and best turn outs we’ve had. Well over a thousand people, a majority of them aren’t actually even Indigenous that walk with us. It’s pretty awesome to see the huge participation.”
The open show of support from non-Indigenous residents of the Alberni Valley is one of the strongest signs that the Orange Shirt Every Child Matters campaign is having a real impact. Started in 2013, the symbol of the orange shirt is a reminder of everything taken from First Nations youth forced into the residential school system from 1879 through to 1997.
“I think that’s what’s awesome - you look at the athletic hall last year it’s like this sea of like hundreds and hundreds of people wearing orange,” said Watts. “It just shows the love and support we have here in the Alberni Valley.”
During the 2025 event Tseshaht made a public request for help shouldering the walk and gathering that follows, stressing that “reconciliation is a two-way street.” This year the City of Port Alberni has picked up some of the responsibility of coordinating the event, as well as the ACRD, Hupacasath, Mosaic and 12 others are working closely with Tseshaht First Nation.
“For the first time we’ve got major donations to help organize the event and help pay for the t shirts,” added Watts. “It’s kind of a logistical challenge, so the city is helping make sure we have flagging by working with the Ministry of Transportation, all logistical things.”
Among the major sponsors of the event this year are Unifor Locals 592 and 686. Ted Haggard, 1st vice president of Local 592, hopes the union can help the Sept. 30 walk become one of Canada’s biggest.
“We believe this is an important event to sponsor because of the work that is being done and still needs to be done around Truth and Reconciliation. We want to stand with the local nations as they navigate through this process and support them where we can,” he said. “Our goals are to help educate our members and everyone else on what happened in the past, we want to learn how to help navigate moving forward. It is important for us to support Tseshaht because of the AIRS being forced into their community, to support and walk with the survivors and help to hold them up while not forgetting those that didn't make it out of that horrendous place.”
“This event always gets great feed back and I believe that every year we all learn something that we weren't aware of before,” added Haggard.
The future of the Orange Shirt Day walk is looking bright indeed, with growing support from across the Alberni Valley and beyond.
“I think, to be honest, that a lot of the weight of all of this day falls on us,” said Ken Watts, “and really it should be the other way around - others should be helping to support our survivors and our community who’ve had to endure all the things that have happened over the years.”
“That’s our end goal: one year it’ll actually be hosted by others, and they’ll organize all of it. I think we’ve already made a huge step [towards that] with the city stepping up,” noted Watts, with one last teaser to offer. “We’ll probably be giving people a bit of an update on the teardown of the Caldwell Hall at the event too - we’ll be sharing some more details and some exciting news coming up!”
All the more reason not to miss this years walk.
