Rick Garrick — Wawatay News

The human impact on drinking water is the focus of a photo exhibition on display at the Thunder Bay Art Gallery.
“You look at the water as you are boating and it is a murky dark brown, rusty coppery looking colour,” said Georjann Morrisseau, a member of the Fort William First Nation Youth Council, describing the water in the rivers and along the Lake Superior shoreline in the Thunder Bay area. “When we went up to Loch Lomond, it was almost clear, a dark dark greeny blue, the way it should be without all those additives and pollution.”

Youth anxious for universal vote
Grand Chief Stan Beardy encouraged the Nishnawbe Aski Nation chiefs to make a decision on the universal vote issue by the next chiefs meeting or the next Keewaywin Conference.

Pikangikum has new Ontario Provincial Police officers after community members protested the actions of previous officers.
“They didn’t want their members being beaten up by police officers,” Pikangikum Chief Jonah Strang said July 2, explaining two OPP officers had arrested a man and put him in jail overnight in late June. “That guy was trying to go for his firearm and the officers attacked him. (He) is also deaf and mute, that is why the people took it to heart.”
Strang said nobody was hurt during the half-day protest June 30 in front of the OPP police detachment.

Missanabie Cree’s Shirley Horn received the Emile Nakogee Award for Leadership during the 29th Annual Keewaywin Awards ceremony.
“It’s a recognition for the really important work that gets done by women, and I accept this not just for me but on behalf of other women,” Horn said after the June 9 awards ceremony in Sandy Lake. “It takes community, and it takes more people than just one person, so that is why I accept this award on behalf of those people.”

The fifth Aboriginal Summer Reading Camp was kicked off June 28 by Nishnawbe Aski Grand Chief Stan Beardy and Ontario Lieutenant Governor David C. Onley.
"This is very important for my people, especially the children," Beardy said. "We are trying to build the foundation in reading for our children. We are trying to instil in them the love to read."
The Summer Reading Camp counsellors, who hail from different communities across Ontario, bring a variety of different perspectives and realities with them to share with the youth in about 30 participating NAN communities.