Volume 10, Issue 12

Aboriginal Achievement Awards

The Aboriginal achievement awards were a huge success once again this year. The Aboriginal Peoples Television Network (APTN) recently joined forces with CBC and the National Aboriginal Achievement Foundation (NAAF) to broadcast this year’s ceremony. The highlight of this year’s show was a special lifetime achievement award given to legendary ... read more ››

Aboriginal Agri-food Exporting Companies

Nine Aboriginal agri-food exporting companies that are members of the First Peoples Business Association (FPBA) showcased their authentic products at the First Peoples Pavilion of Canada at the International Food, Beverage, Wine, and Spirits exhibition (SIAL) on April 2nd to the 4th 2003, at the Palais des Congres de Montreal. Building ... read more ››

B.C. Natives Fight Fish Farms

Native groups opposed to west coast ocean fish farms are going to court to try to preserve what they say are their ancestral fishing grounds. “We’ve been at this for well over a decade,” Chief Bill Cranmer of the Namgis First Nation says. “And we keep being ignored. Now we ... read more ››

Blockade Season at Grassy Narrows

The snow has barely disappeared from the trees she so desperately works to save, yet Judy Da Silva is already dreading the likelihood of spending another frigid Northwestern Ontario winter on the Grassy Narrows First Nation blockade. “We just finished winter, and I’m already worrying about the next one,” says ... read more ››

First Nations Caravan to Confront Liberal Government in Ottawa

Beginning on opposite ends of the country, caravans of First Nations leaders, citizens, and their supporters will travel to Ottawa, growing in number and strength as they go. The Western segment of the caravan, led by Chief Stewart Phillip, President of the Union of British Columbia Indian Chiefs, departed from Vancouver ... read more ››

Haida to Get Repatriated Remains

When the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago hands over the bones of 156 Haida people to a tribe in British Columbia in October, it will become one of only three major museums to extend the U.S. repatriation law outside the coun-try. “It’s huge,” said Karenne Wood, repatriation coordinator at ... read more ››

Journalists at War: a Different Kind of Hero

In the “war on Iraq” there are heroes who do not get the recognition they deserve. These heroes are the hard-working men and women of the press. Think about this for a minute, soldiers (whom I consider heroes as well) have guns. Big guns at that. Journalists, if they are afforded ... read more ››

New Approach to Addiction

Over seven out of ten youth between 15 and 24 years old in Eeyou Istchee smoke cigarettes. Among pregnant women, eight out of ten smoke. The Public Health Department (PHD) observes children as young as eight years old are smoking. In total, half of all Eeyouch 15 years and older ... read more ››

Official Opening of the Secretariat to the Cree Nation/Abitibi Temiscamingue Economic Alliance

It was a meeting of regional bigwigs in Val d’Or. On hand was Mayor of Val d’Or, Mr. Fernand Trahan; the Mayor of Rouyn-Noranda, Mr. Jean-Claude Beauchemin; the president of the CRDAT, Mrs. Diane Raymond; the minister of State for the Population, Regions and Native Affairs, Mr. Remy Trudel; and ... read more ››

Pas-koh-pee-chee-kan (Plucking Goose Feathers)

I am a young ten-year-old boy and only just starting to learn the work that is involved in gathering geese for food. During the hunt I spend my time in a blind with my dad or my older brothers. They do most of the hunting although I have a few ... read more ››

Quebec Elections 2003 in Cree Country

For the first time in Cree history a Grand Chief came out to endorse a political candidate and a party. It was a shocker for some Aboriginal people in Quebec but it is the right of any individual to participate in a democracy and Ted Moses did. Michel Letourneau of the ... read more ››

Silent Discrimination

To discriminate, or not to discriminate, that is the ultimate question. Some entities have silent policies of discrimination, and racial inequality. It is as much a known fact as the sky is blue. It’s just not quite as obvious. Governmental discrimination is something Native people have dealt with for far too ... read more ››

Song Sung Blue

I could barely speak as I went on the stage at the Val d’Or arena. The muffled crowd of a 100 or so sun baked fans filtered slowly to my ears, as the sound of feedback and my dull attempt to tune the cheap guitar in my hands seemed deafening. ... read more ››

White Lies

Another holiday, once extremely sacred yet increasing more commercial, has come and gone. As at Christmas time, I was yet again struggling with the idea of the lies that the capitalist commercial world sells us and that we in turn, sell to our children. I have a two and a ... read more ››