Students and staff at Sir William Macdonald Elementary marked National Aboriginal Veterans Day with a special assembly.

They came into the gym wearing poppies they had coloured themselves in red, or in the red, yellow, black and white of the Aboriginal medicine wheel.

After the welcome and singing of the Coast Salish anthem, a wreath was laid. The students learned about soldiers like Tommy Prince, the highly decorated member of the Brokenhead Ojibway Nation who fought in World War Two and Korea. They also learned about Aboriginal people working to make Canada a better place today, like singer and environmental activist Ta'Kaiya Blaney of the Tla'amin First Nation.

The assembly at the Aboriginal focus school also featured the Canadian National Anthem, before concluding with a minute of silence and the Last Post.

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