On November 8th, a memorial service will be held at the Veterans Memorial Gardens to mark Indigenous Veterans Day. Executive Director of the Canadian Motorcycle Tourism Association Renee Charbonneau says the ceremony will see dignitaries from Treaty Eight, Metis Region Six, and Chief Cindy Halcrow will be speaking.
“She will speak about what this day means to Indigenous veterans,” Charbonneau says. “Because this is Indigenous Veterans day, this is not a day so much to remember the fallen but to thank those who stood up.”
After the ceremony, she says that they break bread inside the Veterans Memorial Gardens, and encourage attendees to ask questions and look at the museum, which features the 115 soldiers’ stories that are featured in the museum. Charbonneau says that of those storyboards nine are of metis soldiers who spoke Cree at home.
“We have now got the research completed and are working towards building the storyboards for our indigenous garden of nine Cree soldiers from our region that fought.”
Charbonneau adds that this gives a better understanding of the degree of participation of the indigenous soldiers from the region.
The ceremony starts at 10:45 am on Tuesday at the Veterans Memorial Gardens.