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The Memory Project is a bilingual program whose mandate is to record and share the stories of veterans and currently serving Canadian Forces members. The Memory Project has two branches: a speakers bureau and an archive. The program aims to preserve Canada’s military history through the voices of those who serve. In addition to the speakers bureau and archive, the Memory Project creates free, bilingual educational materials, including videos, podcasts, and learning tools for classroom use, using oral testimony. The Memory Project is an initiative of the not-for-profit organization Historica Canada (publisher of The Canadian Encyclopedia and maker of the Heritage Minutes) and made possible with funding from the Government of Canada through the departments of Canadian Heritage and Veterans Affairs.
The Memory Project Speakers Bureau
The volunteer speakers bureau arranges for veterans and Canadian Forces members to share their diverse stories, perspectives, and experiences of military service in schools and at community events. The bureau began in 2001 through a collaboration between The Dominion Institute and a small group of Second World War veterans who had been visiting Toronto schools to share their stories. (The Dominion Institute was one of two organizations that merged to form Historica Canada in 2009.) The initial goal was to formalize veterans’ visits and make them accessible on a national scale. The program has since expanded into a diverse community of volunteers from across Canada, including veterans and currently serving Canadian Forces personnel. Speakers bureau volunteers have served Canada at home and abroad and represent a wide range of military experiences, including the Second World War, the Korean War, United Nations Peacekeeping, Afghanistan, and NATO operations, as well as domestic service. Memory Project speakers have reached more than 2 million Canadians with their first-hand testimonies and unique experiences of and perspectives on Canada’s military history.
The Memory Project Archive
The Memory Project Archive grew out of the successful speakers bureau, with the aim of preserving veteran stories for future generations. Beginning in 2002, the project recorded more than 3,600 audio testimonies, and digitized memorabilia, including photographs, medals, and other wartime artefacts.
In 2009, with a grant from the Department of Canadian Heritage, Historica Canada’s The Memory Project: Stories of the Second World War sent interviewers across Canada, touching three coasts and visiting more than 40 cities and towns, to record Second World War testimonies and artefacts. In 2011, with new funding, the project’s mandate was expanded to Stories of the Korean War to record testimonies from Korean War veterans. The project’s goal was to record 516 stories, one for every fallen Canadian during that war.
With more than 3,000 testimonies and 10,000 images, the Memory Project Archive offers an unprecedented historical record of Canada’s military participation, as seen through the eyes of thousands of men and women who were there. These stories provide a personal dimension to important moments in Canada’s war history, including the 1942 Dieppe Raid, as experienced by Herménégilde Dussault, Donald Wolfe, Donald Wolfe, and David Mann, the Battle of the Atlantic from Gerald Wilkes’ perspective, Guy Robitaille’s role in the Italian campaign, and the participation of Jan de Vries and Bill Ludlow at Juno Beach during the Second World War.
The Canadian experience during the Korean War is also well represented. Donald Dalke, Claude LaFrance, Aimé Michaud, André Therrien, Leonard Wells, and their compatriots share perspectives on the Korean frontlines from their time in the army, navy, and air force. These stories from the “Forgotten War” represent memorable illustrations of an important historical period.
Explore these testimonies and thousands more to discover the breadth of Canadian military experience in the 20th century.