Defence Team Co-Champions mark Indigenous Awareness Week

Statement / May 15, 2025 / National Defence

Greetings, Pusu'l, Aaniin, Ainngai, Tawnshi.

From May 20 to 23, we are celebrating Indigenous Awareness Week 2025 with activities across the country that offer unique opportunities to deepen our understanding and appreciation of the First Nations, Inuit, and Métis Peoples and their distinct cultures.

We often speak of Indigenous Peoples in a historical sense, and that history matters. This year’s theme, The Difference You Make Today Counts in All Our Tomorrows, is a reminder that history continues to be written every day, and what we do now will have impacts later.

Many small steps make a journey, and if each of us commits to making small steps of our own, we will all keep moving forward together.

The Canadian Army’s senior Reserve Infantry Regiment, the Governor General’s Foot Guards, recently commemorated a key event in their storied history and, with a small change of language, has shown that we can transform how we think about some of our more troubling history.

The Regiment fired its first shots and suffered its first casualties 140 years ago at Cut Knife Hill, which sits on the Poundmaker Cree Nation near Battleford, Saskatchewan.

The battle, in which Cree and Assiniboine warriors defeated a force of 300 soldiers, was part of the North-West Resistance.

Many of us will remember it as the North-West Rebellion. However, contemporary historians recognize that the Indigenous-led fight for land rights and political self-determination is more accurately characterized as a resistance.

At one time, the Foot Guards would mark this day with a toast to ‘the Sharpshooters of Cut Knife Hill’, which referred only to the soldiers. Today, they toast ‘to The Sharpshooters and Warriors of Cut Knife Hill.’

This is a small but significant demonstration of how our culture is changing for the better, through continual education.

We recognize that Indigenous Peoples have been partners in the defence of this land for more than 400 years.

We encourage you to seek out Indigenous voices all year long. The National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation, The Assembly of First Nations, Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami, and the Métis National Council are excellent sources of information.

Learning is an essential step in reconciliation, and essential to the process of evolving the Army’s culture.

Let us all be a part of this journey.

Your Defence Team Champions for Indigenous People,

Lieutenant-General Michael Wright, Commander Canadian Army, Defence Team Champion for Indigenous Peoples and military co-chair of the Defence Team Indigenous Affairs Committee

Peter Hammerschmidt, Assistant Deputy Minister, Infrastructure and Environment, Defence Team Champion and civilian co-chair of the Defence Team Indigenous Affairs Committee