Learn about the history of Indigenous veterans and participate in local Indigenous community events, encourages Randi Gage, a Vietnam-era veteran and the founder of Indigenous Veterans Day. This Nov. 8 marks the 30th anniversary since the day’s first commemoration.

“Don’t be shy. Go there and find out what it’s all about,” she says. “It’s like a big family gathering.”

Although Indigenous Veterans Day is now celebrated across Canada, Gage states that the day has not developed in the way that the veterans originally wanted.

Not another Remembrance Day

In 1992, the National Aboriginal Veterans Association gave Gage a mandate to designate a day of recognition for Indigenous veterans. In 1994, the government of Manitoba became the first province to officially recognize and celebrate Indigenous Veterans Day.

“The biggest problem is that everybody has the mindset that it’s a second Remembrance Day, but it’s not,” she says. “It is not under the Royal Canadian Legion. It’s our way for our people, and that’s the way it’s supposed to be. But it has evolved into a very regimented thing.”

Gage stresses that Indigenous Veterans Day is for veterans to teach the younger generation and share their experiences in their communities. There is no prescribed way of celebration, as each Indigenous community commemorates their veterans differently.

“It’s to be celebrated how a community wants to do it – with a powwow, a feast, a square dance, whatever the community wants,” she says.

In B.C., there are more than 200 different Indigenous communities. Gena Edwards, president of the B.C. Native Women’s Association, shares that each group has their own ceremony and way of commemoration in B.C.; and each First Nation also has a wall dedicated to the veterans of their community.

“B.C. is such a vast province where each First Nation has their unique culture and values that they follow,” Edwards says.

She also highlights the importance of honouring and respecting veterans in the way that they want.

“I think it’s really important for the younger generations, and future generations, to learn about our forefathers and ancestors who have contributed to Canada,” she says.

Archiving Indigenous veterans’ stories

Gage and Edwards emphasize that more work needs to be done to document the experiences of Indigenous veterans. However, the process will be long and complicated, as many veterans after WWI used a different name when enlisting. Thus, the history of many Indigenous veterans has been lost.

“When an Indigenous person would leave the reserve, they had to give up their treaty rights to become a solider,” says Gage. “They would lose their Indian status.”

As for Indigenous women veterans, Gage and Edwards explain that in Indigenous culture, women are raised to be protectors of children and creators of life. As an Indigenous veteran herself, Gage conveys the internal sacrifice that Indigenous women must make to join the military.

“In the military, your job is to kill that other woman’s child, and that’s a very hard thing to come to terms with,” she says.

Maria Trujillo, project coordinator for the Last Post Fund, has overseen the Indigenous Veterans Initiative since 2019: placing military markers for unmarked graves of Indigenous veterans and inscribing their traditional names on tombstones. Although over 250 markers have been placed, with over 40 from B.C., only four were for Indigenous women veterans. The three of them agree that there is much more to be done in honouring and memorializing all Indigenous veterans.

“There could always be more information sought and gathered. Especially for the Indigenous women veterans,” says Edwards. “Because they not only lost their status rights, but they were also disenfranchised for serving a country to make this country better.”

For more information about Indigenous Veterans Day, visit: www.veterans.gc.ca/en/remembrance/people-and-stories/indigenous-veterans