2RHPZ
11-10-2005, 09:27 AM
Aboriginal veterans recall journey of healing
Phil Hahn, CTV.ca News Staff
On the walls of the Menin Gate memorial in Ypres, Belgium, are engraved the names of 54,896 Allied soldiers who were lost in the Great War and knew no grave.
Under its stately arches, every night at precisely 20:00, a team of local buglers sound the forever haunting salute to the fallen warrior.
Tuesday, Nov. 1 marked the 26,460th time since 1928 that The Last Post played. It also marked the first time some of Canada's Aboriginal war veterans heard its cadences echo in a land their loved ones fought and died in.
Metis veteran Joseph Clement lost an uncle in the third and final battle of Ypres in July, 1917.
"Before, we didn't know where he was killed. But now we know," Clement told CTV.ca from his home in Grimsby, Ont. upon his return from Europe. "We found his name up in the wall of Menin Gate."
"It was emotional. It was very, very emotional."
Clement was part of a delegation of Metis, First Nation and Inuit veterans taking part in the eight-day Aboriginal Spiritual Journey to Europe -- an initiative by Veterans Affairs Canada to pay tribute to the role Canada's aboriginal veterans played in both world wars. For many of them, it marked the first time they had stepped foot onto European soil since serving in the Second World War.
Rain of poppies
Clement was asked to read the Act of Remembrance in French at the ceremony at Belgium's Hill 62. Also known as Mount Sorrel, Canadian soldiers captured and held the hill against repeated German attacks in the Battle of Hooge 89 years ago. But it came at the cost of 8,430 Canadian lives.
The first wreaths to honour those soldiers were laid after two minutes of silence; and as the veterans marched to the Menin Gate, many of them were seen wiping away tears as red felt poppies floated gently from skylights in the gate's ceiling.
"I can honestly tell you, when the poppies came down, everybody cried," said Clement, who was a member of the Royal Canadian Navy. "There was one poppy for every name on that wall."
Veteran Eddy Wabie told CTV.ca he was marching into the gate's tunnel, taking in the immensity of the columns of dead soldiers' names when the poppies started falling.
"It was amazing. I didn't know what was happening at first. The road itself leading into the archway turned red as you walked in. And I was thinking of all the blood the soldiers shed."
"And I felt like I wish I could have been there to help them," said Wabie, who was in Belgium and France representing the Algonquin First Nations of North Temiscamingue, Que.
"But we were too young."
CTV.ca (http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20051107/aboriginal_veterans_feature_051107/20051108/)
Phil Hahn, CTV.ca News Staff
On the walls of the Menin Gate memorial in Ypres, Belgium, are engraved the names of 54,896 Allied soldiers who were lost in the Great War and knew no grave.
Under its stately arches, every night at precisely 20:00, a team of local buglers sound the forever haunting salute to the fallen warrior.
Tuesday, Nov. 1 marked the 26,460th time since 1928 that The Last Post played. It also marked the first time some of Canada's Aboriginal war veterans heard its cadences echo in a land their loved ones fought and died in.
Metis veteran Joseph Clement lost an uncle in the third and final battle of Ypres in July, 1917.
"Before, we didn't know where he was killed. But now we know," Clement told CTV.ca from his home in Grimsby, Ont. upon his return from Europe. "We found his name up in the wall of Menin Gate."
"It was emotional. It was very, very emotional."
Clement was part of a delegation of Metis, First Nation and Inuit veterans taking part in the eight-day Aboriginal Spiritual Journey to Europe -- an initiative by Veterans Affairs Canada to pay tribute to the role Canada's aboriginal veterans played in both world wars. For many of them, it marked the first time they had stepped foot onto European soil since serving in the Second World War.
Rain of poppies
Clement was asked to read the Act of Remembrance in French at the ceremony at Belgium's Hill 62. Also known as Mount Sorrel, Canadian soldiers captured and held the hill against repeated German attacks in the Battle of Hooge 89 years ago. But it came at the cost of 8,430 Canadian lives.
The first wreaths to honour those soldiers were laid after two minutes of silence; and as the veterans marched to the Menin Gate, many of them were seen wiping away tears as red felt poppies floated gently from skylights in the gate's ceiling.
"I can honestly tell you, when the poppies came down, everybody cried," said Clement, who was a member of the Royal Canadian Navy. "There was one poppy for every name on that wall."
Veteran Eddy Wabie told CTV.ca he was marching into the gate's tunnel, taking in the immensity of the columns of dead soldiers' names when the poppies started falling.
"It was amazing. I didn't know what was happening at first. The road itself leading into the archway turned red as you walked in. And I was thinking of all the blood the soldiers shed."
"And I felt like I wish I could have been there to help them," said Wabie, who was in Belgium and France representing the Algonquin First Nations of North Temiscamingue, Que.
"But we were too young."
CTV.ca (http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20051107/aboriginal_veterans_feature_051107/20051108/)