Beaded Poppy, photo and artwork by Robin Stadelbauer, Indigenous Relations Coordinator
This week is Veterans' Week and includes Indigenous Veterans' Day (Nov 8) and Remembrance Day (Nov 11).
We are thinking about diverse experiences of war and conflict – those who fought, who continue to fight, who are forced to flee, and those who are left behind.
In large numbers, Black, Indigenous and racialized folks represented Canada during conflict while often facing systemic discrimination from the very country for whom they were sacrificing, fighting for and sometimes dying in the name of. Many of these fights continue today.
In honour of the diverse sacrifices and experiences of war and conflict, we have put together resources and a suggested reading list. It is by no means an exhaustive list, so please let us know what we are missing, and what we should be reading and reflecting on, particularly this week.
These days are not to celebrate war and conflict, but to reflect on the many diverse lives impacted by all forms of conflict, at home and abroad.
General Resources
- Indigenous Veterans: Equals on the Battlefields, But Not at Home
- Indigenous Peoples and Twentieth-Century Canadian Military History (PDF) | Memory Project
- First Nations Exhibit War Museum | Discusses reality of the fight, while having limited rights at ‘home,’ the record of accomplishment, and challenges of returning back to Canada
- Service History and Activism of Francis Pegahmagabow
- Indigenous War Heroes: Teaching Guide (PDF) | OISE University of Toronto
- Japanese Canadian Internment Camps | Canadian Museum for Human Rights, virtual exhibition
- Canada’s First Black Battalion | Narrated by the Honourable Mayann Francis, ONS (video, length 6 minutes)
- African Nova Scotian Museum | Article that discusses the No. 2 Construction Battalion
- Resources for Young Learners | Veterans Affairs Canada
- Black Canadian Veterans Stories of War | Facebook Group facilitated by a public historian and senior administrator whose father was a WWII veteran. They created the group to highlight the stories of Black veterans and to support a number of war legacy initiatives.
- 40 Stories From Women About Life in the Military | The New York Times Magazine (free subscription required to view)
Fiction, Non-fiction, and Graphic Novels:
- This Place: 150 Years Retold | Graphic novel by Kateri Akiwenzie-Damm, Sonny Assu, Brandon Mitchell, Rachel and Sean Qitsualik-Tinsley, David A. Robertson, Niigaanwewidam James Sinclair, Jen Storm, Richard Van Camp, Katherena Vermette, Chelsea Vowel (Book Trailer)
- Sounding Thunder: The Stories of Francis Pegahmagabow | by Brian D. McInnes
- The Scout: Tommy Prince | by David A. Robertson
- Redpatch | by Sean Harris and Raes Calvert
- African Canadians in Union Blue, Enlisting for the Cause in the Civil War | by Richard M. Reid, UBC Press
- Girls Need Not Apply | by Kelly S. Thompson
- Forgiveness | by Mark Sakamoto
- The Emperor’s Orphans | by Sally Ito
- Double Threat: Canadian Jews, the Military, and World War II | by Ellin Bessner
- The Black Battalion 1916-1920: Canada's Best Kept Military Secret | by Calvin W. Ruck