Indigenous veterans prepare to ‘recognize our own’ on official day

When the Canadian Armed Forces issued a formal apology for the abuses inflicted on Indigenous service members, Jack Park said it hit home.

He was deeply moved when the Indigenous Veterans Day Act — making Nov. 8 the official day to honour Indigenous veterans in Manitoba — was granted royal assent and became law.

“It was so well-received,” Park said on Friday as he prepared for the fourth annual Indigenous Veterans Day ceremony to honour Red River Métis veterans, which will take place on Saturday on Lac du Bonnet.

“I can tell you as an Indigenous person serving, it wasn’t a good thing to be me. They knew we were a different breed, I guess you could say, and they picked on that. The abuse was real. It was absolutely real. When I got out of the armed forces, I was treated like a regular Canadian citizen again. It was a welcome relief to come out of there.”

Park recalled the emotional toll it took when drill instructors would get right in his face and use obscenities and racial slurs.

“But we went through it because we believed in the Canadian forces, we believed in what we were doing, serving our country,” he said, adding there was no recourse for fear of being sent to jail.

“Sad times back then, but thank God that apology has come through now. I feel a lot better having served our country, knowing they recognize what we went through.”

Gen. Jennie Carignan, the head of the military, formally apologized Oct. 30 to the Canadian Armed Forces for the service’s history of racist discrimination and vowed to improve the situation for racialized members.

“We all know that an apology that is not accompanied by a tangible effort to address our failures, to remedy wrongs… would be hollow and without real meaning,” she said.

“I renew our commitment to ensure we remain vigilant in precluding systemic barriers that could block an individual’s participation in military service.”

Park served from 1976 to 1981 and worked as a private contractor in Bosnia in the early 2000s. His father served from 1943 to 1976 and was deployed during the Second World War and the Korean War.

“He went through the same thing,” Park said. “As an Indigenous person, it wasn’t very good.”

Manitoba was the first province to acknowledge Indigenous Veterans Day in 1994, and decades of continued advocacy have led to its official recognition 31 years later.

“This cannot be taken away from us,” said Shawn Nault, head of the veterans department for the Manitoba Métis Federation, a veteran himself.

Indigenous veterans, Nault noted, were renowned for their tracking and marksmanship skills, and for their discipline to move silently behind enemy lines — skills rooted in traditional teachings that emphasize that “bullets cost money, so every shot counts.”

“Having our own day just gives us our own recognition just to personally honour our own Red River Métis, and also our Indigenous veterans. We still participate in the national ceremony, but we get to recognize our own at these special events.”

Nault said the annual ceremony includes the placing of wreaths, the Last Post, the Lament, and the Rouse, along with speeches from veterans and special guests. The Royal Canadian Air Force will conduct a flypast.

This year’s ceremony will be held at the Royal Canadian Legion Branch #164 in Lac du Bonnet. Nault noted that the location changes each year, but part of his mandate is to partner with legions to help ensure they can keep their doors open.

scott.billeck@freepress.mb.ca