Indigenous veterans honoured at Maple Ridge school for Remembrance Day

Students across the Maple Ridge Pitt Meadows school district have spent the week learning about Remembrance Day and the importance of honouring the sacrifice veteran’s made to serve our country.

Sasha Passaglia, a Grade 7 teacher at Fairview Elementary, chose to honour Indigenous Veterans Day, which took place on Tuesday, Nov. 8.

Passaglia is Indigenous with a Metis background, and explained that when she was growing up, the Indigenous ways of knowing was not taught in the school system, including the history of Indigenous veterans in Canadian history.

“In everything we do as educators, it’s important to ensure we are including all cultures and all backgrounds within the learning that we are doing,” said Passaglia.

“Because, specifically with Remembrance Day, there were many different cultures that were involved in the war,” she said of the Second World War.

And with Indigenous veterans, specifically, she said, they actually lost their Indigenous heritage by fighting in the war – and were not recognized for their contributions.

Passaglia said it’s important for students to learn the true history of what Indigenous veterans experienced.

“Out of everything that they experienced with residential schools, and having their land taken away from them and stolen, they still stood up and fought,” she said.

Last year she did a fairly large inquiry project with her students surrounding Indigenous Veterans Day, where the students chose an Indigenous veteran to research and learn about their history and where they served, what band they were apart of, awards of medals that they received, and their family lives.

“Just learning about how Indigenous Veterans Day was never really talked about and the importance of that especially towards reconciliation,” she said.

Throughout the year they did followup activities and wrote a book on reconciliation in her class last year. It was called Imagine a Canada.

“The students wrote poems imagining a Canada with reconciliation,” she described.

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This year they learned about the Cree code talkers during the Second World War. These were Indigenous men who used their Cree language to encrypt messages for the Canadian government in order to help with the war effort against the Axis powers of Nazi Germany, Italy, and Japan.

The students learned that many of the Cree code talkers were tasked with coding messages for bombing runs and air missions. But, because they were sworn to secrecy both during and after their involvement in the war, it is unknown how many Cree code talkers there were.

“Without them, we probably wouldn’t have been as successful in the war as we were,” said Passaglia.

In addition, the students learned some of the Cree language.

Then on Tuesday, Nov. 8, national Indigenous Veterans Day, there was presentation by Metis veteran Woodrow French, who currently lives in Newfoundland. He spoke to all the students at the school about his experiences and showed them his medals and sashes.

French told the students how he served in the Royal Canadian Air Force, RCAF, as an Air Force Policeman from 1960-1970 and was stationed in Germany from 1965-1968. During this time, he achieved the rank of Master Corporal. Following his service, he was involved in the field of health and safety, and he is a Canadian Registered Safety Professional, CRSP. Additionally, he served two terms as Mayor of Conception Bay South (Newfoundland/Labrador) and was a board member of the Federation of Canadian Municipalities.

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Now, French explained to them, he is a proud participant in Remembrance Day services, and as a member of the Royal Canadian Legions Colour Party, attends school services to speak to students about the importance of remembrance. He was also the president of the Peacekeepers Veterans Association.

At the end of the presentation, French recited The Act Of Remembrance which students followed with the refrain, “We will remember them,” recalled Passaglia.

Students at Golden Ears Elementary held their own Remembrance Day ceremony, complete with a recitation of the poem In Flanders Fields, the playing of The Last Post by music director and organizer of the assembly Jennifer Hansen, and a moment of silence.

Students also had hand-made paper wreathes pinned to bulletin boards at the front of the gym.

The choir started the assembly off with a singing of O Canada. Then the choir sang a song called Song for Peace and If You’re Out There by John Legend.

To end the assembly, the whole school sang Children’s Blessing, written by Indigenous musician and educator Sherryl Sewepagaham, from Little Red River Cree Nation in Alberta.