This Sunday marks 100 years since the start of the Battle of Vimy Ridge. You probably learned about it in high school: the 3,598 Canadian lives that were lost over three days of fierce combat in northern France, and the bravery of our homegrown battalions and brigades as they stormed – and ultimately took – Vimy Ridge. A memorial to Canada’s fallen soldiers was unveiled on the top of the windswept crest in 1936.
The battle changed the course of the First World War and (arguably) defined Canadian identity in the decades that followed. You can watch a Heritage Minute about the Battle of Vimy Ridge here.
Unless you’ve specifically sought out the information, though, you probably haven’t heard about the First Nations soldiers who fought for Canada at Vimy Ridge – or the more than 4,000 indigenous soldiers who volunteered to fight for Canada in the First World War. With its new play Redpatch, Vancouver’s Hardlines Theatre aims to change that.
Redpatch is the creation of co-writers Raes Calvert and Sean Harris Oliver, alumni of Studio 58 and co-artistic directors of Hardlines Theatre. The title refers to the red patch that was first worn by Canadian soldiers in 1916 to distinguish them from their British counterparts.
Redpatch is the fictional account of Jonathon Woodrow, a Métis volunteer soldier from the Nuu-chah-nulth nation of Vancouver Island. Set in Canada and the battlefields of France, Redpatch follows Woodrow as he endures trench warfare and all manner of discrimination. “We explore how these soldiers had to change themselves and what they had to do to survive a war that was as brutal as the First World War was,” says Calvert.
Calvert and Oliver were inspired to learn more about the involvement of indigenous communities in the First World War after Oliver played a First Nations soldier in a 2011 production of Vern Thiessen’s play, Vimy.
Over five years of research, the co-writers uncovered an entire history of indigenous involvement that had largely been forgotten. “Indigenous soldiers were paramount in a lot of the successes that Canada had in that war,” says Calvert, who is Métis and grew up in Richmond. “I never learned any of this in school. I never learned about any of the contributions that aboriginal soldiers had made.”
Redpatch briefly touches on the systemic discrimination faced by indigenous veterans upon their return to Canada. “Many aboriginal soldiers returning from the war were denied post-war benefits because they’d had to relinquish their status as First Nations people to be able to enlist in the army in the first place,” says Calvert. “We explore it in Redpatch, but it could be its own show.”
Redpatch features an entirely First Nations cast: Calvert, Reneltta Arluk, Émilie Leclerc, Joel D. Montgrand, Chelsea Rose Tucker, and Deneh Thompson. The six actors play eight roles, and the style is highly physical, according to Calvert, with movement set to music in the scenes and transitions.
If audiences would like to learn even more about the contributions of indigenous soldiers during the First World War, they can head to redpatch.ca. Hardlines Theatre’s educational website – which was funded in part by Canadian Heritage – features production videos and a graphic novel version of Redpatch, illustrated by Christian Kent.
Redpatch runs April 12-16 at Studio 16 (1555 West 7thAve.). Tickets at hardlineproductions.ca.
