How a tight-knit Mi'kmaw community honours its veterans for Remembrance Day
CBC
Eel River Bar, a Mi'kmaw community in northern New Brunswick, takes pride in their veterans, with multiple generations finding different ways to honour their memories.
Arianna Gauvin Sanders, 17, has taken an interest in her community’s military history, including her great-grandparents, Michael and Margaret (Pictou) Labillois, who both served in the Second World War.
“I wanted to learn more about the significance of everything they've done,” she said.
"It made me feel more connected to that part of my family.”
Through a high school credit program with North Shore Legacy last year, she researched Indigenous veterans and their impact in the First and Second World Wars.
She said she was struck by the lack of documentation that existed on most Indigenous soldiers from that time, compared to their non-Indigenous counterparts.
In 2024, she travelled to Normandy to retrace the steps of New Brunswick soldiers who landed on Juno Beach, where she sang the Mi’kmaw honour song at the ceremony and laid tobacco ties on graves of Indigenous soldiers.
According to Canada, at least 3,000 First Nations members enlisted during the Second World War and an unknown number of Inuit and Métis soldiers, though the numbers are thought to be higher.
“Even though they weren't considered Canadian citizens, they still fought,” she said.
Now a Grade 12 student, she was master of ceremonies at her school’s Remembrance Day event on Friday, for the second year.
Each year, she looks for her great-grandparents’ banners among the 33 hung in Eel River Bar to honour Mi’kmaw veterans in the community.
“I feel a sense of pride,” she said.
“I am just happy seeing them get their recognition, too.”
Former chief Jake Caplin said he personally hangs up a banner of his great-grandfather Joseph Simonson, every year, who served in both the First and Second World Wars.
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