After an almost 40-year career with the Canadian Armed Forces, PO1 (ret'd.) Steve Morrison will be commemorating Remembrance Day for the first time in decades as a civilian following his retirement in June.

"[On Remembrance Day], I remember as a young guy when you go and you think of all the veterans, you think of World War Two," said Morrison. "Now, I think of all the people I've known who've gone off to Afghanistan, UN peacekeeping and NATO peacekeeping, Yugoslavia tours of duty. And I think of all my friends and colleagues who are no longer with us for one reason or another, and I think of those who are still serving."

Morrison, a Red River Metis who lives in Langford, joined the Royal Westminster Regiment, an infantry reservist regiment in Vancouver, in 1985. In 1991, he joined the Royal Canadian Navy where he stayed for the remainder of his career. His family also has a long military history, with his great-great-grandfather being a secretary and close friend of Metis political leader Louis Riel, his grandparents served in the Second World War, and eventually he and his brother joined the armed forces.

Over his career, he worked as a tireless advocate for Indigenous members of the forces, working as the co-chair of the Defence Indigenous Advisory Group where he represented over 3,000 indigenous CAF members and civilian contractors for the armed forces and the Department of National Defence. He also worked as a recruiter where he was responsible for Indigenous and diversity recruiting across the country, and he was an instructor on RAVEN, a six-week Indigenous youth employment initiative at CFB Esquimalt.

"I served during the Oka Crisis. I had sergeants and warrant [officers] say disparaging things against indigenous people. I've watched the military slowly grow over these past decades," he said. "Are they perfect? No, nobody's perfect. We are a mirror of Canadian society. So everything that happens in Canadian society will happen in the Canadian Armed Forces, because that's who we recruit. So all the problems and issues, and the advancements, that are happening outside will happen inside."

Over 39 years, he has been a witness to sweeping changes throughout the Canadian military, and he's watched numerous lives change for the better through his recruiting work and his work with the RAVEN program.

He shared a story about when he started working as a recruiter in Alberta. Morrison and his partner met a woman on a Kainai Reserve whose brother was getting involved with gangs and was getting into trouble with the police before he joined the Bold Eagle program, the Alberta equivalent of RAVEN. After the program, he made a "complete 180" and built a successful career with the CAF.

"I've met so many councillors, elected chiefs, band firefighters and police officers, and workers who are all Bold Eagle or Raven or Indigenous program graduates, because they realized there was something outside of themselves, outside of their community," he said. "It showed them there's a bigger world outside of their small communities."

Over time, he's helped advise top brass of the navy on changes throughout the military to be more inclusive and to further recognize Indigenous Peoples, and he says he has seen genuine change for the better, including having a display case with an Eagle Staff in the DND headquarters, and the naming of new destroyer ships as the River-class.

"I was sitting in the room with the admirals, virtually of course, while they're making these decisions and they're not only asking, they're listening to the advice and to what we say, and I think that's the biggest change. It's not just change for change's sake, or inclusivity for inclusivity's sake," he said.

Overall, he sees a bright future for Indigenous members of the military as the government invests more in Indigenous-centred programs and spaces, and as DIAG and RAVEN continue their work.

"I'm sure it's same with every basic training across the world, you watch them come in as gangly kids and they get up at five in the morning and make [their] bed and shower. You teach them how to iron and do push-ups and march. You watch them and the first couple of weeks it's just mass confusion like the deer in the headlights, like, 'Oh my God, what the hell's going on?'" he says with a laugh. "Then you see it click, and you watch them as they walk off that grad parade and for a lot of them, they go home and you lose contact. But those who you stay in contact with, you watch them grow as humans and it's amazing."

Since his retirement, Morrison, who joined the forces at 17, will take a year off before he figures out what's next.