Northern News Services

Yellowknife (Nov 14/05) - For eight days, veterans, elders and youth from across Canada followed in the footsteps of aboriginal warriors through France and Belgium.

It was the Aboriginal Spiritual Journey, a celebration of First Nations, Inuit and Metis contributions to Canada during two world wars, the Korean War and peacetime.

It began and ended in Ottawa, but was really a pilgrimage to places like Hill 62, Vimy Ridge, Normandy and Dieppe.

At Mount Kemmel, Belgium, elders prayed and performed sacred rituals to summon home the spirits of warriors killed in battle.

Veterans and youth visited monuments and cemeteries marking famous Canadian battles.

Along the way, songs were sung, Inuit drums sounded and dances were performed. Tears flowed as memories overwhelmed veterans and others who accompanied them on the journey.

A piece of Inuit tradition is a signpost to the past, standing tall over the beach at Courseulles-sur-Mer, Normandy.

The inukshuk was built by former Nunavut commissioner Peter Irniq to commemorate the Aboriginal Spiritual Journey.

Created from French stone but crowned with a red rock from the land near Iqaluit, the inukshuk has become a "defining symbol, not just of this pilgrimage, but of the Year of the Veteran," said Veterans Affairs Minister Albina Guarnieri during an unveiling ceremony beside the Juno Beach Centre in France.

"This is a very spiritual connection to the past and the future," said Irniq.

The structure points west, a special window looking out over the Atlantic Ocean toward Canada.

Irniq used Inuit Qaujimajatuqangit to find the top stone.

"I went looking for it, looking for a colour of rock that would co-ordinate with the colour of the French stone," he said. "I just knew."

When Pauline Pemik of Arviat wrote a song for veterans two years ago, she never imagined she'd be singing it in a war cemetery in France.

Her eyes filled with tears after each performance.

"I'm sorry for them, that they had to go though (the war)," she said.

Her singing partner, Lois Suluk-Locke, also of Arviat, was also emotional about being part of the journey.

"It's been amazing," she said.

"To me, it seems like we're the beacons to bring forward the message of what happened here."

Iqaluit RCMP Const. Sylvia Sharp stood tall as part of an honour guard that accompanied the journey.

Her grandfather fought in the Second World War.

"It's been a very eye-opening experience, with all the different First Nations," she said.

Coral Harbour teen Delilah Misheralak, 17, said it was an incredibly moving experience to tour Canadian war cemeteries.

"Seeing their ages kind of scared me. They're mostly young people who hadn't started their lives yet."

Irniq's daughter Iguttaq, who attends Inuksuk high school in Iqaluit, said the hours spent on an airplane across the Atlantic and on the bus around Belgium and France were worthwhile.

"I feel very proud to be Inuit," she said after her father's inukshuk was unveiled at Juno Beach Centre. "I will take my kids here one day."