Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s apology to Black soldiers who served in the First World War was a good first step, but real action is needed to address racism in the Canadian Armed Forces.
The Canadian flag has been at half-mast on government buildings since the end of May, after unmarked graves were identified at the former Kamloops Indian Residential School.
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Adrian Wyld
Remembrance Day has typically focused on commemorating the costs of military conflict. It is time to reconsider what and we remember and how.
‘Isolated Grave and Camouflage, Vimy Ridge,’ by Mary Riter Hamilton, May 1919, oil on wove paper.
(Library and Archives Canada, Acc. No. 1988-180-223, Copy negative C-141851)
After Canadian painter Mary Riter Hamilton was rejected for service as a war artist because she was a woman, she trekked battlefields to create more than 320 works that recall the missing soldiers.
Dispatch rider with pigeons leaving for firing line, His Majesty’s Pigeon Service, November 1917, location unknown.
(William Rider-Rider. Canada. Department of National Defence. Library and Archives Canada, PA-002034)
British poet Wilfred Owen told readers there is no peace for the dying soldier until we fight against the lie that it is sweet and proper to die for one’s country.
The 1919 Victory Parade passes down Whitehall, to mark the end of World War I.
PA Archive/PA Images
The first two-minute silence in 1919 was designed as a moment that could unite people across many divides. It has become a collective means of commemoration for all manner of tragedies
Soldiers in Anzac Cove. The war had driven Australians apart in the demands it made upon the people.
State Library of Victoria
The politics of the war continue to resonate in our discussions of national identity and purpose.
Memory can serve as a heavy reminder of the past. Indigenous people gather in Shubenacadie, N.S., in June 2008 to remember the residents of a former residential school and the abuses they suffered.
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Mike Dembeck
Memories can be powerful tools to address humanity’s most difficult political, sociological and environmental problems
Virgin Australia is a dogged publicity hunter. The nation’s second-best known Minogue, Dannii, helped launch its first flight from Sydney to Hong Kong in June 2018.
AAP Image/Supplied by Virgin Australia
This year marks 100 years since the fighting stopped in the first world war. The commemoration of the armistice, Remembrance Day, remains potent but is also changing with the times.
On the 100th anniversary of the end of the First World War, the University of Saskatchewan will be dedicating a memorial bench on the university campus.
The wildflowers that WWI soldiers encountered in Europe become symbols of remembrance and the fragility of life. The red poppy in particular is a powerful motif in Australian war art and photography.
Students should be taught to recognise the political, social, and economic factors that influence how a society conducts and participates in memorialisation of the past.
David Crosling/AAP
Teaching students to recognise and understanding the political, social, and economic factors that influence how we celebrate Remembrance Day would make them more active citizens.
Veterans see something very different to the medals, uniforms and poppies of Remembrance Day.
FACT
Forty six thousand Australians died on the Western Front. After WWI, diggers were resettled in Queensland’s Granite Belt, where suburbs were named after battle sites. Our photo essay explores these poignant places today.
The internet offers a chance to personalise our commemoration by choosing when, where and how we take part.
Stefan Wermuth/Reuters
The internet and social media are changing how we commemorate war. The hashtag #LestWeForget will be shared millions of times on Remembrance Day in tweets and Facebook comments.
Veteran status is a right to be earned.
John Gomez/www.shutterstock.com