Aboriginal Veterans Day 2023 | City of New Westminster

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Aboriginal Veterans Day 2023

November 8, 2023, will mark the 29th annual Aboriginal Veterans Day.

Indigenous people have served in the military for 200 years and were known to be excellent scouts and marksmen. They have also been widely recognized as “code talkers,” translating sensitive intel into Cree to avoid interception by opposing forces.

Despite this service, Indigenous veterans were historically not offered the same support and resources that were provided to non-Indigenous veterans, and were further stripped of their Indian status and all rights that went along with that, including band membership. Further compounding this discrimination, Indigenous veterans and their families were not permitted to lay wreaths or have their own formed guards on Remembrance Day. Aboriginal Veterans Day was a response to this exclusionary action; beginning in Manitoba in 1994, it was as an opportunity for Indigenous veterans, and their families and communities, to mourn and remember as they wished.

Although these discriminatory policies towards Indigenous veterans have been reversed or amended in recent decades, Aboriginal Veterans Day continued and is now observed nationwide in acknowledgement of the long-fought battle for recognition of Indigenous veterans’ very important contributions to the Canadian military.

City Activities

The City will lay a wreath at the cenotaph out front of City Hall on November 8. Mayor Patrick Johnstone will represent New Westminster at the ceremony being held in Vancouver.