Calling Lake’s Remembrance Day ceremony last week was traditional with a bit of Aboriginal flavour.
“Our cenotaph was actually a tipi that we had inside of the building. It was lit. It was a red tipi with hundreds of poppies all over it,” said Lance Cardinal, fine arts coordinator for the MD of Opportunity and event organizer. “We also highlighted Aboriginal soldiers throughout the history of Canadian armed forces, throughout all the different wars.”
It was the first time Calling Lake had held a ceremony and it went over great, with around 200 people coming out to honour the veterans who fought in the wars.
“We were so happy with the turnout,” he said. “A lot of people were so happy to be able to stay home for the ceremony and not have to travel far away, especially some of our elders and some of our older families of veterans who wanted to celebrate, but didn’t want to travel.”
The idea to hold a ceremony in the community is new — according to Cardinal, it’s just been a tradition for people to go to Wabasca or Athabasca. This year, though, they decided to do things differently.
“This year we decided to keep it within our own community, he said. “Just so we can have our own sense of identity with events of this kind and just to celebrate our own local people from our community.”
Along with listing the tipi and honouring both local and famous Aboriginal veterans, the John McCrae poem In Flanders Fields was recited in Cree and they showed a video during the ceremony.
Cardinal plans to make this an annual event, with the hopes of growing it a little bit every year, but all the while keeping it Aboriginal.
