Rick Garrick — Wawatay News

Bikes going to North Spirit Lake
April 15, 2010: Volume 37 #8, Page B4
North Spirit Lake will soon receive a couple shipments of refurbished bicycles.
“We obviously need to fix them up, because they are not rideable in their current condition. A lot of them need either brakes or pedals or seats or chains or all of the above,” said Tammy Bobyk, executive director of Shkoday Abinojiiwak Obimiwedoon (Aboriginal Head Start) in Thunder Bay. “Our first goal is to get 50 to 75 fixed up and sent to North Spirit Lake.”

Elliott Doxtater-Wynn strummed a custom-made guitar during the opening weekend of the Thunder Bay Art Gallery’s Celebrating the Creators exhibition.
“Ironically, half of our customers so far don’t even play the guitar,” said Lisa Hanson, who creates images on her husband Erick’s custom-made guitars and is one of 53 Aboriginal artists and craftspeople featured in the April 3-May 23 exhibition.

Kashechewan’s hunters are not bringing home enough geese to stock up for the coming summer months.
“Our freezers will be empty because of the poor hunting and warm weather,” said Kashechewan Deputy Chief William Sutherland, explaining his community has been affected both by the short winter road season and the lack of geese. “The geese are just flying through – they get a few here and there, just enough to eat once for one day.”
Kashechewan’s community members usually store food from the geese hunting season and the winter road season to get them through the summer months.

Gravesite disturbances and other questions are being raised about the ongoing Ring of Fire railway survey.
April 29, 2010: Volume 37 #9, Page A16
While Marten Falls Chief Eli Moonias could not speak about the gravesite disturbances he had recently discovered in his traditional territory because a lawyer was currently looking into the issue, other leaders and chiefs in the Ring of Fire area spoke about their concerns with the incident.