Grace Poulin finds Canada’s ‘invisible’ servicewomen

Thursday March 18, 2010

She called them Canada’s invisible women.

That’s not to say they didn’t exist.

March 18, 2010; Volume 37 #6, Page A3

But finding them and their descendants proved quite difficult for Grace Poulin, who spoke about her research into Canada’s Aboriginal servicewomen in the First and Second World Wars during a lecture at the Thunder Bay Museum Feb. 23.

Poulin began to study the topic after retiring from nursing and beginning to take Indigenous Learning Program classes at Lakehead University.

“Knowing nothing about the history and cultures of the original people of Canada, I found this program to be enlightening,” Poulin said. “Since there was absolutely nothing written about them, my Trent University thesis topic was Second World War Aboriginal Servicewomen in Canada’s military.

“I thought it would be easy to locate some Aboriginal women veterans and interview them. Boy was I wrong.”

Poulin said neither the Department of National Defence nor the Department of Veteran’s Affairs had any records of Aboriginal peoples who served in the war. Race or ethnicity was not on the enlistment papers.

However, after four months of research, 28 names of Aboriginal female veterans were uncovered.

Poulin was able to contact and interview 18 of them, speak to the families of two others and the son of First World War nurse Edith Anderson, who hailed from Six Nations. The women and their families were scattered across the country.

Poulin wrote a book chronicling the experience of finding the women and sharing their stories.

Proceeds from the book initially went towards the cost of holding a reunion for as the women who could make it. More than a dozen, some with walkers and wheelchairs, and all in their 80s, attended the reunion.

Now, the funds are being collected in hopes of making a documentary because all the interviews were recorded.

“Aboriginal women who served in the Canadian military during the Second World War had very similar hopes, dreams and experiences as their non-Aboriginal sisters,” Poulin said. “Reports of gender bias and overt sexual assault seemed to depend on where the women were posted or how many old boys officers they encountered.”

She discovered most of the women served in non-combat roles. They mostly filled medical, clerical, culinary and service roles, which fit men’s expectations of women’s roles at the time.

The women had to overcome the whispering campaign, which was full of rumours about VD, loose women and illegitimate babies.

“Returning home following discharge amid feelings of unrest and public disinterest in their experience, Aboriginal

servicewomen got on with their lives by marrying, raising families and not sitting around swapping military experiences,” Poulin said. “As with Aboriginal servicemen, Aboriginal servicewomen were treated inequitably by not being informed of post-war benefits and lack of pensions.

“It is long overdue to express gratitude for their contribution to the tapestry of Canadian history.”