Hamber’s Remembrance: Commemorating the Sacrifices
G.S. Matthews/Flickr
As in past years, Remembrance Day was commemorated at Hamber. This year, due to the ongoing pandemic, the assembly took place virtually, where students watched a video from their 1-3 classrooms on November 10, 2021.
Mr. R. Kumar (Social Studies) helped organize this year’s assembly. “I have some close friends and colleagues whose families have fought in the wars,” he explained. He then discussed the importance of telling their stories.
In the assembly, Mr. Kumar also wanted to ensure that a wide variety of student voices were heard, involving Hamber’s International Exchange students and Hamber’s Learning Assistance Life Skills (“LALS”) students. Mr. Kumar explained that the students were very eager to get involved. In particular, the International Exchange students wanted to learn more about Canadian ceremonies, such as the one held on Remembrance Day.
Staff organizing the assembly also aimed to focus on diverse representation. Mr. Kumar explained, “We felt that the stories of unsung soldiers should also be told and that is something we were able to do through the service. An example of that would be the sacrifice of Frederick Lee, one of the Chinese soldiers in ‘the war no one knew about until three months ago.’”
Mr. Kumar expressed that “one of the goals for the entire school community was to develop the virtues of respect, empathy, citizenship, responsibility, and of course, gratitude among our staff and students.” The Remembrance Day assembly also brought forth creativity in Hamber’s students, including a spoken word poem by Kelly Lau (10). Lau was inspired by Vancouver’s maple trees, as the red leaves connected to poppies as a symbol of Remembrance.
The poem, which won the District Zone Poetry Competition, is titled “Legacy of Leaves.” Rather than focusing on specific events, the poem is more about soldiers wanting to be heard and remembered. “We live in this sense of freedom and appreciation, and recognizing that is important in understanding that the future is dependent on our past,” explained Lau.
Lau, who does a lot of spoken word poetry, feels that “the power of taking a concept that everyone already knows about and listening to that and taking that in through poetry is so important.” The original plan was to simply read the poem aloud, but she felt it would be more impactful to create a video.
Lau described her view of Remembrance Day as, “that mentality and understanding of recognizing all of the things from the past, all of the sacrifices from the past, all of the dark actions, all of the victories, all of the struggles to move toward building this sense of a brighter, freer future.”
As there is no such thing as a “perfect assembly,” next year, Mr. Kumar suggests representing more ethnic minorities such as Japanese Canadians and perhaps having a veteran speak during the assembly.
Through the inclusion of many student voices and creative aspects in the assembly, staff faced some challenges with conflicting schedules and social distancing. Especially given the short amount of time to make the video, this year’s Remembrance Day assembly was nevertheless a success.