Veterans travel to Europe to call spirits home

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Twenty Aboriginal veterans and their care providers, accompanied by 14 Aboriginal youth from all regions of Canada, travelled throughout Flanders and Normandy on both sides of the France-Belgium border from Oct. 26 to Nov. 4, paying their respects to fallen comrades buried in the many wartime graveyards throughout the region.

It was all part of a $1.5 million effort by Veterans Affairs' Canada in this Year of the Veteran to recognize the contribution of First Nation, Metis and Inuit soldiers who fought for Canada in Europe during the two world wars.

As the veterans and others participated in remembrance ceremonies, Aboriginal spiritual Elders conducted a unique four-day ceremony that began Oct. 28 at a Belgian military base near the town of Kemmel, not far from the site of the infamous First World War battle for Hill 62.

The Calling Home Ceremony was conducted to bring the spirits of Aboriginal soldiers who fell during the First and Second World Wars back to their homeland in North America so they could be with their ancestors.

Ed Borchert, president of the National Metis Veterans Association, was a central figure in making the Aboriginal Spiritual Journey a reality.

"This is a vision that will be told by the grandmothers and mothers to their children and those not yet born. It is a vision in our lifetime brought to us from the ancestors and the warriors of old on the wings of an eagle, crying out for the spirits of our fallen warriors to be called home so that we might bring closure to our families and our communities and to those who did not have a chance to say goodbye," said Borchert.

A ceremony to prepare the participants was conducted Oct. 26 in Ottawa on Victoria Island near Parliament Hill, land considered sacred to the Algonquin people, just before the delegation boarded a Canadian Forces air transport for the flight to Lille, France, the delegations' headquarters for the 12-day journey.

As the Calling Home Ceremony proceeded in Belgium, ceremonies of remembrance were conducted nearby at Hill 62 and later in the towns of Bernieres-sur-mer and Beny-sur-mer in Normandy, France, both located near Juno Beach where Canadian troops came ashore on D-Day-June 6,1944-to begin the liberation of Europe from Nazi occupation.

Later, the delegation would participate in remembrance ceremonies at the sites of the First World War battles at Passchendaele and St. Julien, where Canadian troops breathing through urine-soaked rags withstood the first poison gas attacks of the war and held the line against the German invaders just outside the Belgian city of Ypres. Then it was on to Vimy Ridge in France, where on Easter morning, April 8, 1917, Canadian troops scaled the ridge and achieved in one day what other forces had been unable to accomplish during the previous two years.

The delegation also attended a rededication ceremony at Essex Farm Cemetery near Ypres where Canadian John McRae wrote the poem In Flanders' Fields. The concrete bunkers of the First World War medical station have been preserved at the location and a number of Canadian war dead are buried there.

Veterans' Affairs Minister Albina Guarnieri accompanied the group for the entire journey. She helped unveil a plaque commemorating McRae and his poem.

One of the highlights of the often-emotional trip was the Last Post Ceremony beneath the Menin Gate in Ypres. The ancient Belgian city was reduced to mud and rubble during the First World War but was lovingly reconstructed by its inhabitants to resemble its former glory, including a medieval cathedral and town hall. Although the walled city with its spectacular ornate gates now appears much as it did during the Middle Ages in many places, no building anywhere in the town was constructed before 1920.

Such was the devastation and such is the appreciation of the town's inhabitants for the foreign soldiers who fought back the German aggressors that every night since 1928 at precisely 8 p.m. a group of bugles assemble under the Menin Gate to sound the Last Post.

Nov. 1 was the 26,460th consecutive evening for the ceremony-with the exception of the six years of the Second World War when the ceremony was not performed.

Thousands of the town's residents crowded under the gate to watch in wonder as Aboriginal dancers and performers shared their culture and honoured the 54,896 Allied soldiers who perished in and around the trenches of the Ypres Salient -the no man's land where the German and Allied armies stood deadlocked for more than two years. As the ceremony was concluded, thousands of poppies fell gently down from the top of the arch, some 20 metres above.

In another highlight a few day earlier at Juno Beach, Governor General Michaelle Jean joined the delegation and met with the Aboriginal youth. The new governor general helped unveil an Inuksuk at the Juno Beach Centre, the only Canadian owned and operated museum in Europe which is located at the top of the beach where the Canadian troops landed on D-Day.