Today is once again Indigenous Veterans Day, which honours the sacrifices and commitment of First Nations, Metis, Inuit, and all Indigenous peoples who took part in military service.
Every year, the City of Yellowknife holds a special service for the occasion at the Lakeview Cemetery. Local Indigenous leaders will be giving speeches to commemorate the soldiers who served in the World Wars, Korea, and Afghanistan. After the speeches, young members of the local Cadets group will place candles on the graves of every soldier buried in the cemetery.
Indigenous Veterans Day is observed every year on November 8th, but was only first recognized in Winnipeg in 1994. Since then, it has grown to a nation-wide holiday.
While many of the details are foggy, Indigenous peoples have been serving in Canada’s armed conflicts as far back as the War of 1812. In the last hundred years, it is believed that as many as 12,000 Indigenous people served in the Canadian Forces, with an estimated 7,000 serving in the World Wars and Korea.
The experience of Indigenous service was quite different to the experience of other soldiers. During the World Wars, many Indigenous men and boys enlisted as a way to avoid the cruelty of Canada’s residential school system. Even during their time in the military, many of them continued to face alienation from their communities, and would become disenfranchised when they returned home.
A more recent development of Indigenous Veterans Day is that of the beaded poppy. Beading is a common skill in many Indigenous communities, and so the idea was hatched to create a unique poppy design out of beads to commemorate Indigenous soldiers. The beaded poppies were created by Jennie Town in 2021, and since then, have been embraced by the Royal Canadian Legion.
