In front of a large assembly, Grade 7 La Verendrye School (LVS) student Madyson Wood stepped up to the mic.

"This is the story of Phyllis Webstad," she began.

Students and staff at LVS took part in Orange Shirt Day Friday, wearing orange shirts to recognize a national movement that started in 2013 to remember residential school students' experiences and promote reconciliation. The movement was inspired by Phyllis' story.

In 1973, on her first day at a British Columbia Mission school, Phyllis wore an orange shirt. The shirt was a gift from her grandmother, and Phyllis loved it. But when she arrived at school she was stripped of all her clothes, including her orange shirt. She never saw it again. Phyllis was just six-years-old.

Her story matters to Madyson.

Madyson was born in Dauphin, but has lived in Portage most of her life. She is of aboriginal descent, and says she wanted to share Phylis' story because her family, too, have been victims of the residential school system.

"It's important to me because my grandparents went to a residential school," she says. "I just really wanted to read the story to tell everybody how important this is."

Residential schools were government established institutions that existed in Canada between the late 1800s until 1996. They were intended to assimilate Aboriginal culture into a more Euro-centric ideal.

"Aboriginal kids shouldn't have been going to schools and taken away from their families just to be turned white," Madyson continued. "Because people are who they are."

LVS principal Tracy Vanstone says close to 70 per cent of LVS students are of aboriginal descent, and the school recognized Orange Shirt Day to raise awareness and focus on treating everyone equal. Also to remember the history of Canada and what so many people have gone through -- especially in Portage and surrounding reserves.

"At this school we believe in respect. We believe in love, humility and truth," Vanstone says. "This is about telling the truth, learning to reconcile and understanding what reconciliation means."

Vanstone says we all need to understand history and why there are cultural challenges in Manitoba and Portage la Prairie. That way we can try to build empathy, move forward and work together.

"We're proud of our kids," she says. "We want them to understand culture and we want them to practice respect. And respect is about reconciliation too."

"We can't forget all of our history that's gone on."