Snowbirds ‘warriors of the air’ squadron crest to get makeover

A crest featured on the arms of the pilots flying the Canadian Armed Forces’ most famous jets is set to be modernized.

The Snowbirds’ squadron crest with the motto ‘The Hatiten Ronteriios,’ translated to ‘warriors of the air,’ has been in use since 1942 and features a an image of an Indigenous man wearing a headdress.

The squadron’s commanding officer Lieutenant Colonel Denis Bandet says it’s time the organization evolves with the current social climate.

“To be locked into the past without any effort to modernize… it’s not in our best interest as the military, as the armed forces, and [the crest] doesn’t represent us in the image that we want [to portray] to the rest of Canadians.”

The decision to make a change to the crest came back in January, before the discovery of hundreds of unmarked graves at multiple former residential schools.

“There’s very little documentation on what kind of consultations were made with Indigenous groups [when the squadron crest was designed],” explains Lt. Col. Bandet. “And so we started dialogue with local community leaders, and just within the RCAF itself, to say, ‘Hey, is this something we need to modernize?'”

The Snowbirds recently flew over the site of a former residential school in Saskatchewan where 751 unmarked graves were discovered last month, to express their sincere respect and solidarity with Indigenous peoples across Canada.