The Vancouver National Aboriginal Veteran’s Association celebrated Nov. 8, National Indigenous Veteran’s Day, in the Downtown Eastside.
Jamie Thomas, veteran and founding member of Vancouver’s National Aboriginal Veteran’s Association, said that for decades, the Indigenous people who served in Canada’s wars were invisible in Veteran Day Commemorative events. He describes how even if acknowledged, they were physically relegated to the back of the line behind the firefighters, police officers, and Girl Scouts.
Thomas, who organizes the annual celebrations here in the DTES each Nov. 8 told CFRO how indigenous people were treated after the war including the devaluation of their services; Indigenous Veteran’s Day works to change this, and Thomas invites everyone to come each year and join in the celebrations to honour them.
