This veteran decolonized Remembrance Day events to honour Indigenous military service
Jeff Monague helped bring Indigenous music, culture and language to Christian Island, Ont.
If you attend a Remembrance Day service at the Beausoleil First Nation, expect a decolonized ceremony.
Instead of O Canada to start things off, an honour drum song will be offered.
Jeff Monague was the driving force behind this and other ceremonial changes, because "history has basically erased us as veterans," he told Unreserved's Rosanna Deerchild.
Monague is a member and former chief of Beausoleil First Nation on Christian Island, Ont., near Barrie, Ont.
Following in the footsteps of his father, a veteran of the Korean War, Monague served in the Canadian military in the 1980s, including being deployed to Germany. During that time, he recalled being disciplined and threatened with jail time for wearing a bracelet given to him by a cousin under his uniform.
He's currently a base elder at Base Borden, the largest training establishment in the Canadian Armed Forces. There, he's worked to incorporate Indigenous elements into their Remembrance Day ceremonies — an acknowledgement he never had as a soldier.
He spoke with Deerchild about how that work began shortly after returning from active duty and being elected chief of Beausoleil First Nation. Here's part of their conversation.
When was it that you decided that you wanted to incorporate or change or decolonize Remembrance Day?
I was chief when I came back, so I got elected shortly after I came back. So it was during that period that we began to make those changes and to have Remembrance Day services on a more regular basis.
We invited the local legions to come and to be a part of our parades. So they were quite large. And it was a shock to some of them because of their own colonial traditions, that they would have to do things differently. And some of them did vocally say that.
What did you say to those people who said what you were doing wasn't right?
I reminded them that this was our traditional territory and as allies of The Crown, this is how we do things. And when we visit their cenotaphs and march with them, we will follow along with their traditions.
Once you joined the military and were in active service, how would you describe your sense of belonging there?
I did have some pretty good friends, friends who are still there with me today. I would back them to the ends of the earth. And so they would do the same for me. And those are friends that are all across Canada.
But I did come up against some people who disliked me for — not who I was as a person, but who I was to them in terms of my nationhood.
And so today … one of the things I want to do is to make sure that young soldiers, men and women, are not experiencing the same kind of racism that we were experiencing all those years ago. That's a hard nut to crack.
What kind of racism did you experience? Can you give an example?
One day I was standing around with some friends and we were talking and I had my hands on my hips and I had this sergeant come behind me, and he hit my hands from my hips. And he said, "You do not stand around like you're an authority here."
He said, "No Indian will ever be in charge here." But, you know, I'm saying it nicely. He used a couple of colourful words with that.
How did you hold onto your culture then while serving overseas?
I did little things on my own. On the inside of my helmet, I drew the medicine wheel. And I do that for my own all-round defence, as a symbol. And nobody else could see that. But I had something there that represented who I was.
I couldn't overtly just wear regalia of any kind. So that was my way of still being defiant and doing things in the way that we would have anyway.
That's amazing that you're able to do that. And now you are the base elder … How do you use that position to influence changes in the way Remembrance Day is marked?
Base Borden has actually been great to work with … and we work together to try to do exactly what I was talking about, to try to change things for young soldiers, young Indigenous soldiers, and also to have a more of a presence on the base.
So I work closely with the Rangers. They have a unit there and we have a sweat lodge, so we do sweat lodge ceremonies and we have smudging. So a lot of times before a parade and when I can get there, I do provide that as part of the opening of any parade, especially the base parades.
That's a huge step from where I was in the 1980s when I wasn't allowed to even show my regalia, to now I'm helping to have our traditional ceremonies recognized as part of their ceremonies.
What is the best case scenario for you when you say you want to change the way the military sees Indigenous people serving? What do you hope to change in the big picture?
Well, the understanding that we are still sovereigns. We have never given up our nationhood. We agreed to stand beside you and we did that through treaty. We did that through our wampum belts. A lot of those tell the same story, and it just got pushed aside.
What would you want most Canadians to know about Remembrance Day and its importance, particularly in terms of Indigenous participation in these conflicts?
Well, the fact that so many of our men and women, in a higher number than any ethnicity in Canada, signed up for all the conflicts. And even in my community today, we still have young men and women that are part of the Canadian military.
We have always been here to help, to protect this country that they have come to call Canada. But we also protect our own people. We also protect our own nations. And that's why we served as allies.
Produced by Bridget Stringer-Holden. Q&A edited for length and clarity