Ottawa elementary students hear stories from Indigenous veterans

Students at Mary Honeywell Elementary School learning from Indigenous veterans. (Dave Charbonneau/CTV News Ottawa)

More than 12,000 Indigenous people served in the Korean, First and Second World Wars.

On Tuesday, their stories were shared with children at Mary Honeywell Elementary School in Barrhaven: a Remembrance Day lesson for students.

“It's really important for children to learn the history of the sacrifices that our veterans have done for their country," said Claudette Commanda, Algonquin Nation Elder who will become uOttawa's new chancellor this week.

Two Indigenous veterans passed stories onto the next generation.

“It's a very important thing to come and engage with our youth and to tell them how important they are,” says Brian Prairie, President of the Metis Nation Ontario Veterans Council. “And to remind them of what veterans have done in the past and the sacrifices that were created.”

“I find sometimes my students are better informed than even I am sometimes,” says Grade 6 teacher Jessica Stairs. “The connections that they make because they've been learning about it for so many years now, they're really getting a better picture of kind of the whole picture of Canada’s history.”

Tuesday is National Indigenous Veterans Day. It's a time for Canada to learn about decorated Indigenous war heroes.

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“They didn't do it for themselves, they did it for their country,” says Grade 6 student Olive Thornton. “I think it's really important because we remember the people that put their lives on the line to protect us.”

“My granddad was a mechanic in the air force,” says Grade 6 student Declan Finlay. “So I think it’s very important to remember what things like him and other people did.”

Indigenous veterans will be laying wreaths at the National War Memorial on Friday, which they were only allowed to do beginning 1995.

“We cannot forget important elements of history, such as the role that Indigenous and Canadian veterans played to ensure that in today's day and age, Canada remains peaceful, safe and free," Commanda said.