THUNDER BAY — A nearly week-long exhibit at Lakehead University’s Agora continues to shine a light on the experiences of First Nations, Métis and Inuit soldiers from the Northwest.
Lakehead University and the Native Veterans Association of Northwestern Ontario are hosting the annual commemorative exhibits during Veterans’ Week and in honour of National Indigenous Veterans Day. The latter was on Sunday Nov. 8.
“To have reconciliation between First Nations and the settler population across this country, we have to speak our truth of what we’ve endured and experienced,” says David Thompson, researcher and volunteer with the Native Veterans Association of Northwestern Ontario.
The organization was founded by the late Second World War veteran Charles “Willy” John of the Red Rock Indian Band on November 11, 1988.
John and local advocates like Thompson sought to preserve and catalogue the stories of Indigenous veterans in the region.
The project — a partnership between the university and veterans association, along with Confederation College, the Thunder Bay Museum, and Treaty 3 organizations — displays historic artifacts, photos, and honour rolls of Indigenous veterans who served in many of Canada’s conflicts around the world.
“It also brought to life a lot of our stories and Anishinaabe stories, our profiles and biographies of veterans and descendants,” Thompson told Newswatch. “We started getting more into a lot of other stories connected to the overall picture of Anishinaabe veterans in general, talking about the different grievances.”
“I was more focused on trying to collect information for one of his other wishes (which) was to put together a educational booklet for inclusion in the school curriculum and for all schools to talk about our history as an Anishinaabe people, our connection to the Crown, our connection to Canada, and our role that we’ve played being part of every conflict.”
The Indigenous Veterans of Treaty 3 exhibit will be on display at the university’s Agora from Nov. 9 until Friday, Nov. 13.
Denise Baxter, vice provost of Indigenous initiatives at Lakehead University, said it’s important to observe the sacrifice Indigenous people made, whether they were killed in combat, returned from conflict or are still actively serving.
“I think for our young people, this is an opportunity for us to bring other things that are important in this country into their learning environment,” she said. “We have students from all over the world at Lakehead here in Thunder Bay, Orillia and in Barrie — also, for our students who are studying here from other countries, I think it’s also important to know a little bit more about the history of Indigenous peoples in a wide variety of ways.”
“Sometimes people see things in one situation only, and they may think that’s how it is, but we have served with honour for hundreds of years, and I think that’s what this exhibit is able to share.”
Thompson said seeing young people entering the exhibit in the Agora showed that people are starting to listen and pay attention to the stories Indigenous people are openly sharing.
“We’ve been kind of sidelined when it comes to these kinds of different events, whether it’s regional, international, or within the province, within the country, and within maybe the last decades,” he said. “Since I graduated, things have come a long way in some of the redress we’re dealing with, and it’s going to be ongoing for a time yet to come.”
Thompson said truth and reconciliation is not going to be an easy task, but once the goals are set, they are achievable.
“Now we’re starting to get our colours back,” Thompson said. “We’re starting to assert ourselves and advocate for ourselves and take our rightful place in this country.”
“We do have a place in this country, and we want to make it work,” he continued. “We want to make it work with everybody involved with the provinces, the territories and the federal government.”
“But it takes a lot of work and a lot of people to make this work — it can’t be just one-sided, and I see a lot of progress happening, and I’d like to see that continue.”
