Volume 18, Issue 17

Entering Wemindji’s golden era

With the looming gold mining project on Wemindji territory getting closer to moving from the advanced exploration phase into becoming a full-fledged mine, one question that has been on the minds of many Crees is how to maximize the economic spinoffs from the project for those who live on the ... read more ››

Farm fresh food heading north

I was happy to read recently that a new project has been launched in northern Ontario that will help First Nation people have access to healthier foods and vegetables. Nishnawbe Aski Nation (NAN), Quality Market and True North Community Co-operative (TNCC) announced a partnership to bring fresh-food options to First ... read more ››

Five more CHR graduates

Cégep de l’Abitibi-Témiscamingue proudly announced June 4 that five more Native students were awarded Attestations of Collegial Studies in becoming Community Health Representatives (CHR). Last December the program graduated its first two students and now five more have successfully completed their studies. Alice and Sylvie Jerome of Lac Simon, Hazel Georgekish of ... read more ››

Kids Help Phone reaches out to Native youth

The folks at the Kids Help Phone have come to the realization that their posters, featuring images of lonely non-Native kids in city parks, couldn’t possibly appeal to Native kids in communities, like Attawapiskat, Ontario where there isn’t even a playground. This is why the private and confidential kids help-line embarked ... read more ››

Native pride

First off, I hope everyone had a great National Aboriginal Day on June 21, I know I did and I’m not even Native. For the celebrations I went to the reopening of the Native Friendship Centre of Montreal (NFCM) which held an event in partnership with the Inter-Tribal Youth Centre ... read more ››

Natives finally covered by Canadian Human Rights Act

Closing a 30-year gap of lacking human rights protection, First Nation Canadians living on reserves will finally be included under federal human-rights laws. When the Canadian Human Rights Act was created in 1977, the federal government argued that since Natives were governed under the Indian Act more time was needed to ... read more ››

Of our beginnings

Looking back is always, as any police officer will tell you, difficult. If 10 people witness a crime you’ll have 10 different stories and many of them aren’t the same thing the others experienced. Another problem is summed up in a quote by Friedrich Nietzsche when he said, “I have done ... read more ››

Plugged in and beyond

When broadband finally hits Eeyou Istchee this fall, it won’t just mean that Crees will finally be able to run an iPhone or play Farmville at regular speed as a flood of new technologies geared at everything from online learning to medical diagnoses at a distance will finally be available ... read more ››

Remembering 1971

Every generation of Crees will have to retell and adapt the story of their past to meet the needs of their particular historical and cultural and social situation. That is what will keep them alive as Crees – both socially and culturally. They will need to shape the material into ... read more ››

Running with Shannen’s dreams

The Shannen’s Dream campaign to end education apartheid for First Nations youth held a major launch on June 10 for a new report that will make its way to the United Nations later this year. The 84-page document is an alternate report, entitled Our Dreams Matter Too, that will be delivered ... read more ››

Summer or bust

Wow, summer is finally here. I dusted off my second-hand air conditioner and cleaned off the dead mosquitoes and flies off the grill and readied the window for the first official indication that summer is really here. To make it ecologically official, belugas arrive just in time, migrating near the ... read more ››

The greatness of graduating

Though school might be out for the summer, for some Crees this spring marked school being out forever for them. While the Nation would like to congratulate everyone who graduated from their respective academic programs this spring, we caught up with a handful of post-secondary graduates to see what it felt ... read more ››

The Indians of Quebec Association

In the mid-1960s, the Indian Affairs Head Office in Ottawa ordered its Quebec regional office to organize a number of province-wide meetings with the leaders of Indian Bands to encourage them to develop a regional Indian organization to be prepared to meet with Ottawa to discuss proposed changes to the ... read more ››