Category: 2012 11 02

Growing Up

Told by Joseph Guanish, Kawawachikamach Translated and transcribed by Brian Webb When you were young, who told you the stories and legends? Our grandmother, of course, the one who raised me. She was the one who brought me up. My parents did not raise me. My grandmother and grandfather took me in and ... read more ››

ᑳ ᐅᐦᐱᒋᓂᑯᐎᔮᓐ

ᒍᓯᕝ ᑯᐙᓂᔥ ᐋ ᒌ ᑎᐹᒋᒧᑦ, ᑳᐙᐙᒋᑲᒫᒡ ᐱᕌᔨᓐ ᐌᑉ ᐋ ᒌ ᐃᑣᔥᑎᒫᑎᐦᒃ ᑭᔮ ᑭᔮ ᐋ ᒌ ᒥᓯᓂᐦᐊᐦᒃ ᑳ ᒌ ᐅᔅᒋᓃᒌᐅᔨᓐ, ᐊᐙᓐ ᑳ ᒌ ᐹᐦᑑᑦ ᒫᓐᐦ ᐋ ᑎᐹᒋᒧᑦ ᑭᔮ ᒫᒃ ᐋ ᐋᑎᔫᐦᒑᑦ?   ᒍᐦᑯᒥᓂᐤ ᑮᑆ᙮ ᐊᓂᔮ ᑳ ᐱᒥᓂᑦ᙮ ᐊᐃ ᑮᑆ, ᑖᐹ ᓂᐅᐦᒋ ᑭᓄᐙᔨᒥᑯᒡ ᓄᐦᑖᐐ ᑭᔮ ᓂᑳᐐ᙮ ᔖᑯᒡ ᓂᒌ ᐅᑎᓂᑯᒡ ᓂᒧᔓᒻ ᑭᔮ ᓅᐦᑯᒻ ᒑ ᑭᓄᐙᔨᒥᒡ᙮ ᐋᐅᑯᓂᒡ ... read more ››

The great giveaway

The Conservative bulldozers are roaring, trampling over our parliamentary democracy, our rights and, soon, through the rivers that are vital to many First Nations. The federal government recently tabled Bill C-45, a bloated, 457-page assault on the common good that it dishonestly said is only intended to implement changes already announced ... read more ››

Metal band Elderoth releases debut album

Elderoth is a Montreal-based heavy metal band comprised of singer and lead guitarist Collin McGee (a member of the Cree Nation of Wemindji), rhythm guitarist Denis Stoisin and drummer David Gagné. Recently, the band released their first self-titled album. Although the label “heavy metal” allows people to lapse back into their ... read more ››

Stornoway Diamonds receives Renard mining lease

Over a decade after discovering the markers of a large diamond deposit, the Renard mining project is closer to realization. The Quebec ministry of natural resources issued Stornoway Diamond Corporation a 20-year mining lease for the project last week. Stornoway predicts the mine – to be built about 250 kilometres from ... read more ››

Innu Band Council comments on Route 138 protests

Just hours after the Innu blockade of Route 138 was broken by police intervention, the Innu Band Council Uashat mak Mani-Utenam (ITUM) issued a statement regarding its community’s actions. “The [ITUM] is not surprised by the latest overflow of anger from the community…. All the great Innu Nations in Quebec and ... read more ››

BullyingCanada needs your support

Bullying has taken over the headlines lately after the recent suicide of Amanda Todd in British Columbia. But there are many more cases that go unreported, with the rate of suicide among Native youths six times the rate of non-Aboriginal youth. Sadly, with the advent of social media and cellphones, bullying ... read more ››

Groundbreaking tech earns CCI a silver at international awards

The standard view on museums is that it’s a one-way street in education – people go to them to learn. But Aanischaaukamikw Cree Cultural Institute (CCI) has decided on going a different way in helping, through the use of apps and mobile technology, visitors contribute their stories. On October 10, CCI ... read more ››

NDP MP Romeo Saganash takes medical leave

On October 22, Romeo Saganash, NDP MP and an early contender in the leadership race of the party, took medical leave to recover from his dependence on alcohol. The Quebec MP for Abitibi–Baie-James–Nunavik–Eeyou made the request after an incident on October 19, when he was ejected from an Air Canada Jazz ... read more ››

We are all immigrants

  I don’t understand why so many people get upset about immigrants coming to this country. Of course, you have to remember I have a special view considering my people are the original inhabitants of this land so everybody else who came after us I view as immigrants. The Europeans were the ... read more ››

Aboriginal organizations lead fight against diabetes

The fourth annual Timmins Diabetes Expo October 18 and 19 has helped strengthen the fight against diabetes in northern Ontario. Aboriginal organizations and area health-care agencies have been working together for four years in prevention, awareness, education and support concerning diabetes through events targeted to professionals, the public at large ... read more ››

Hi ho silver screen

Standing on 80 acres of land owned by his friend in Manitoba last April, Cree actor and director Erland Campbell had an idea – let’s film a western. Equipped with nothing more than a digital camera and a .16 gauge shotgun, Campbell and his friend filmed Revenge On the High Plains, ... read more ››

A five-step program

Kelly Lendsay won’t let up. He’s a relentless advocate for a five-step plan for development in Aboriginal communities. He designed the agenda at the Aboriginal Entrepreneurs Conference and Trade Show (AECTS) around these five steps. Here’s why: “There’s a big focus on resource development,” Lendsay explains, “because what’s under development, particularly ... read more ››

Great expectations

About 40 years ago, a provincial premier said he’d bulldoze Indian rights, land claims or any Indian community that got in the way of his mega-project. Big business and governments didn’t bother with Indigenous rights back then. Things have changed. Today, powerful law firms churn out legal opinions advising governments and international corporations ... read more ››

Diabetic patient talk

  What used to be a death sentence in the time before insulin, diabetes has become a much more manageable disease, provided the patient is willing to put in the effort and live a healthier life. For the newly diagnosed, however, testing positive for high blood sugar can be a terrifying event, ... read more ››

Grand weight loss

  Having been in the public eye of the Cree world since the mid-1990s, Deputy Grand Chief Ashley Iserhoff looks almost like a shadow of his former self. The political figure has lost over 60 pounds of excess body fat and revamped his entire lifestyle in the process. Now a lean, mean, ... read more ››

Plan Nord or Plan Mort?

There is no doubt that the political shift from the Liberals under Jean Charest to a Parti Québécois led by Pauline Mariois has created a different economic environment within Quebec. In the PQ’s first week in office the former Liberal government’s much-prided “Plan Nord” for natural resource development in the north ... read more ››

Means was mean but meant well

A powerful, eloquent voice for Indigenous peoples worldwide was silenced on October 22. Russell Means – activist, actor, musician, writer, boxer and political firebrand – succumbed to cancer at his home in Porcupine on the Pine Ridge reservation in South Dakota. He was 72 years old. Means gained notoriety in the ... read more ››

Fighting words

In what some in Eeyou Istchee said was not a surprising decision, the Canadian Nuclear Safety Council (CNSC) announced on October 17 that it would be granting a license for advanced uranium exploration in the Mistissini area to Strateco Resources Inc. This came despite the profound opposition to the project voiced ... read more ››

Being human these days…

For a long time, some of my heroes were star athletes who, of course, were in incredible shape and were often world-record holders. Since those days, many of their records were broken and some stars slowly turned off, their twinkle never to be seen again. Some athletes, however, went on ... read more ››

Ethics once again

I have written about ethics throughout the years and it’s time to do so once again. It certainly isn’t new: this issue was a hot one way back in 1990 at that year’s Annual General Assembly. That’s when a resolution to establish a code of ethics to govern potential conflicts ... read more ››