Armistice Day

[Megas Methuselah]

I remember attending a remembrance day ceremony on First Nation reserve land when I was very, very young. My vague memories include witnessing my great-granduncle, together with a small group of other elderly First Nation veterans, marching around a pole flying the Canadian flag in the middle of the vast prairies, sorrounded by First Peoples gathered to pay their respects. They were quite elderly indeed, and in my childish mind, I could not tell whether those proud men were marching or pow wow dancing, so fragile were their bodies and weak their steps.

Yet it was these same men who, more than fifty years ago, fought together side by side with the rest of Canada's young men in a European war. The respect these First Peoples earned overseas, the bonds of friendship developed between Canadian Aboriginals and non-Aboriginals, and the horrors they witnessed, including the holocaust, began to bring an end to one of Canada's historical chapters. Laws which persecuted First Nation peoples were, ever so slowly, abolished. By 1960, most of Canada's First Nation population had finally, amongst other things, been given the basic right to vote.

I respect my great-granduncle not only for the sacrifices he made overseas, but for the rights he, together with all First Nation veterans, won for the future generations of our people. Micwach, nimishomish.