Mr. Yann Castelnot is a native of Vimy, France, who immigrated to Canada 13 years ago. Dating back to 20 years ago, he began researching Indigenous people who served in the Canadian Armed Forces. He is an amateur historian and spends a lot of time furthering his research, identifying soldiers and putting together files. To this day, more than 154 000 names have been collected which includes 18 000 from Canada. Mr. Castelnot is the President of the Association de recherche des anciens combattants amérindiens. The Association’s mission is to honour the memory and acknowledge the dedication and sacrifice of Indigenous soldiers. All information that is discovered is published on the Association’s Facebook page, which sometimes includes information that is sometimes unknown to the descendants of the Indigenous soldiers.
Mr. Castelnot recently helped to set up three exhibitions in France. He does so as a volunteer in honour of the sacrifices of those who served. Mr. Castelnot is often asked to write articles and answer questions from journalists and history students interested in the military service of Indigenous people.