Thank you, Madam Speaker. Today I want to honour a Northwest Territories resident who's doing exceptional work to help honour Indigenous veterans from the territory. The person doing this work is our SergeantatArms in the Legislative Assembly, Mr. Floyd Powder.
A veteran himself, he is one of 12 Indigenous researchers from across Canada supporting the efforts of the Last Post Fund and its Indigenous Veterans Initiative.
Madam Speaker, created in 1999, the Last Post Fund is focused on making sure all deceased veterans receive dignified burial and a permanent resting place with a headstone. The Indigenous Veterans Initiative was launched in 2019 and makes every effort to represent the culture of Indigenous veterans, whether it be through symbols or inscriptions in their traditional language. For over seven years, Mr. Powder has given hundreds of hours to creating a list of northern veterans and doing research on unmarked graves of veterans in the Northwest Territories.
Madam Speaker, this work is so important, especially in the context of commemorating National Indigenous Veterans Day on November 8th next week. The work he is doing will help make sure Indigenous veterans who gave their life to supporting the freedoms in this country at a time for many were not necessarily the same.
In an interview with a local media outlet in 2021, Mr. Powder said, and I quote, "We need to remind Canadians that in this great country, Indigenous service men were treated unfairly. It's not acceptable. So I'm here to remind people what actually happened," end quote.
Madam Speaker, I couldn't agree more with this sentiment.
I want to congratulate Mr. Powder for giving his time to this initiative and helping to make sure Indigenous veterans are properly honoured for all they did and the ultimate sacrifices that they gave. Madam Speaker, Lest we Forget.
