Indigenous veterans to be honoured at Vancouver festival concert

The organizers of a cabaret-style festival in Vancouver have planned a special concert for Friday night to honour Indigenous veterans. 

In Spirit: A Concert for Heroes is scheduled as part of the annual Transform Festival, which showcases Indigenous and non-Indigenous artworks of varying kinds and runs this year from Nov. 6 to Nov. 9. 

Nov. 8 marks Indigenous Veterans Day, which honours the sacrifices made by Indigenous people serving in Canada's military — though festival co-artistic director Corey Payette said he's not sure many people realize the day exists. 

"I do think there needs to be an acknowledgment and a pause and a special recognition of the sacrifices that Indigenous veterans have made," he told CBC's North by Northwest host Margaret Gallagher. 

According to the federal government, an estimated 4,000 Indigenous people served during the First World War, and more than 3,000 served during the Second World War. 

On its website, the government also acknowledges their treatment during this time: Canada expropriated hundreds of thousands of acres of reserve lands while Indigenous people were serving the country, it says, adding that some of that land given to non-Indigenous people as part of a program that offered farmland to returning veterans. 

Composer, producer and singer Russell Wallace's Forgotten Warriors, a song for Indigenous veterans, will be featured as part of Friday's concert, Payette said. 

As well, Vancouver men's choir Chor Leoni will perform a song from Payette's own musical, Children of God.

"I'm so excited to be able to take that space and to honour those veterans in this way," Payette said. 

The Transform Festival started in 2019 as a way to bring Indigenous and non-Indigenous artists together, Payette said. 

"There [were] a lot of silos being created of Indigenous artists getting to work together, but then non-Indigenous artists not getting those same intersections," he said.

Now, he said, artists of different disciplines and varying backgrounds are creating together.  

"It's really a chance for audiences to see something that's really new and fresh that has never been seen before."