Volume 18, Issue 4

An independent assessment

While the federal government may have started to pay out common experience payments to residential school survivors in 2007, the end grows near for those who may still want to file for the Independent Assessment Process (IAP). Members of the Indian Residential Schools Adjudication Secretariat from Indian and Northern Affairs Canada ... read more ››

Auditor General says Canada is still failing First Nations

Canada’s Auditor General, Shelia Fraser, is calling on federal and provincial governments to change the way they deal with First Nations communities as the quality of life on most reserves is dramatically worse than in non-Native communities. After spending a decade auditing the performance of governmental departments in regards to First ... read more ››

Be-“witched”, bothered and bewildered

The parents of Lana Wapachee, whose sweat lodge was recently dismantled in Oujé-Bougoumou, feel both insulted and persecuted by their community, chief and council after having the lodge, along with any other form of traditional spirituality, banned from the community. Just weeks ago, Oujé-Bougoumou residents not only banned all traditional Native ... read more ››

Beating Murphy’s Law, northern style

The first pipes froze today, and it’s not yet Christmas. It wasn’t a fun sight, water and ice everywhere, but it was bound to happen sooner or later. Murphy’s Law works double time up here, in the far north. In many ways, winter is a fun time. Most of my ... read more ››

Crees open “Quebec embassy”

It is amusing – in some circumstances one might call it slightly alarming – to observe how effortlessly the leaders of the Cree Nation, as the eight Cree villages in Quebec now style themselves, have switched their policy towards the nationalist claims of the province of Quebec. In the 1990s, the ... read more ››

Energizer

If you’re like me, you probably find it hard to roll out of bed at this time of year, when the days are so short and the natural light so weak. It’s a SAD state of affairs, you could say. During the past few weeks, predictably, it’s become increasingly difficult ... read more ››

Merry Christmas to one and all

Christmas is a stressful time of the year. It has always been that way for me. From the time I was a child I have more or less endured the coming and going of Christmas. Back home in Attawapiskat in the 1980s, when I was a kid, Christmas revolved around ... read more ››

Mukash on spirituality

Since this fall, Oujé-Bougoumou has been in an uproar over spirituality, recently banning all forms of Native traditional practices within their communty. Having expressed a desire to share his feelings with all of Eeyou Istchee, the Nation decided to grant Matthew Mukash an interview on the issue. The Nation: Oujé-Bougoumou has banned ... read more ››

Police on trail of pedophile who once lived in Eeyou Istchee

Police in Lévis, Quebec, are appealing to the general population for information about possible sex crimes against children that may have been committed by Yvon Beaudet, a former health-care worker who has lived in several First Nations communities in Quebec, including Eeyou Istchee. The 63-year-old man is currently facing charges involving ... read more ››

Proud of being Native

My name is Destiny Chescappio. I was born in Maniwaki, Quebec, where my mother Grace Brennan is originally from, an Algonquin reserve called Kitiganzibi. My father’s name is James Chescappio. He was born in Schefferville, Quebec and later moved to a new reservation called Kawawachikamach, where the population is close ... read more ››

Remembering Smally

Here are a few words touching Smally Petawabano, as I found him when he was Chief in 1969. “Smally was the chief when I first went up to Mistassini in 1969. He was running the band out of a tiny, rundown hut, and like many other chiefs across Canada at that ... read more ››

Shannen’s Dream lives on

The Assembly of First Nations unanimously passed a resolution to support Shannen’s Dream, an organization whose sole goal is to end educational apartheid for First Nations school children across Canada. The organization was formed in the wake of Shannen Koostachin’s passing last May to commemorate her fight to get a school ... read more ››

Standing up to Section 74

About 100 Algonquins from Barriere Lake and many of their supporters took to the streets of Ottawa on December 13 to once again show to Canada that they will not accept Section 74 of the Indian Act being imposed on their community. Back in the spring, Indian and Northern Affairs Canada ... read more ››

The animals and the plants

Kevin Brousseau’s newest book, Trilingual Lexicon of the Fauna and Flora of Iynu Asciy, is truly one of a kind and possibly one you should own. At the age of 18, several years before he started his double major in Linguistics and Religion at Concordia University, Brousseau began compiling lists of ... read more ››

The Bear and the Child

A legend told by Joseph Guanish, Kawawachikamach translated by Brian Webb I will tell the legend of the bear. I heard my grandmother tell this one – the one about the bear that lived with a child. This was how she told it. One time, a black bear began feeling lonely and ... read more ››

The legend of Kuikuhâchâu

Told by Sandy Masty of Whapmagoostui   Translation by Brian Webb I will tell the legend of Kuikuhâchâu, the man who took the form of the Wolverine. He was the one who confronted the Giant Skunk called Wâniyûyâu. As the legend goes, the Giant Skunk took human form also, using snowshoes when ... read more ››

Youth environmental scholarships

If you are graduating from high school and have a real passion for the environment and have taken steps to show the world just how much you care, Earth Day Canada might just have something special for you. Earth Day Canada (EDC) is currently seeking graduating high school students as applicants ... read more ››

ᒋᔖᔮᒄ ᑳ ᐅᑎᓈᑦ ᓈᐹᔥᐦ

ᒍᓯᕝ ᑯᐙᓂᔥ ᐋ ᒌ ᐋᑎᔫᐦᒑᑦ ᑳᐙᐙᒋᑲᒫᒡ ᐱᕌᔨᓐ ᐌᑉ ᑳ ᐃᑣᔥᑎᒫᑎᐦ ᐋᑎᔫᐦᑳᓐ ᑮᑆ ᐋ ᐃᐦᑎᑯᐦᒡ᙮ ᐊᐃ ᓂᑭ ᑎᐹᒋᒫᐤ, ᒋᔖᔮᒄ᙮ ᐋᐅᒄ ᐊᓐ ᑳ ᒌ ᑎᐹᒋᒫᑦ ᒍᐦᑯᒥᓂᐤ, ᐋ ᐐᒋᒫᔨᒡᐦ ᐊᐙᔑᔥᐦ᙮ ᒀᑖᑎᔫᐦᑳᓂᐎᒡ ᔨᐤ᙮ ᐃᑖᔨᐦᑎᒽ ᒋᔖᔮᒄ, ᐙᔖ ᒨᔥ ᓂᐹᔨᑯᔑᓈᐙ, ᐃᑖᔨᐦᑎᒽ ᐃᑖᐤ᙮ ᐊᑐᒡ ᑳᑭᔮ ᓂᑭ ᒌ ᐃᐦᑐᑖᓐ ᒑ ᒌ ᓈᓂᑐᐙᐱᒥᒃ ᐄᔨᔨᐤ ᐊᐙᔑᔥ ᒑ ᒌ ᑭᓄᐙᔨᒥᒃ, ᐃᑖᔨᐦᑎᒽ ᐃᑖᐤ᙮ ᐊᒄ ... read more ››