I am the product, evolution of many thousands of years as are you.
When it comes to long-term community development, it may be best to start from scratch.
That was the approach forced on Bingwi Neyaashi Anishinaabek (BNA) First Nation, after its traditional lands were displaced in the early 1900s to make room for a provincial park.
Noront Resources, one of the big players in Ontario’s Ring of Fire, says it wants to set a new world-class standard for how mining companies work with First Nations communities around developments.
Noront’s Chief Operating Officer (COO) Paul Semple made the claim during the company’s visit to Nibinamik First Nation on April 12.
First Nations and municipal leaders from northwestern Ontario are banding together with a list of demands to ensure long-term benefits of the Ring of Fire stay in the region.
The demands include powering the mines with hydropower, connecting remote communities to a hydro grid and road network and building Cliffs Resources’ chromite smelter in Greenstone.
It was a moving, emotional tribute to the strength of women, the support of a community and the power of healing.
Now Adrienne Fox’s feature series on the struggle of women in Kitchenuhmaykoosib Inninuwug to recover from prescription drug addiction has won a national newspaper award.
Fox’s three-part series, Reclaiming Life, which ran in Wawatay in February and March 2011, was recognized as the best feature series in its class at the 2012 Canadian Community Newspapers Awards.
A second arrest in a recent Pikangikim homicide has been made.
Florence Dunsford, 29, of Pikangikum was arrested and charged with aggravated assault on April 21.
32-year-old Fitzgerald Owen of Pikangikum First Nation was found in the late evening hours of April 14 on the side of a road. He was transported to the local nursing station and was subsequently pronounced deceased.
A post-mortem examination concluded that Owen died of foul play.
Dunsford’s arrest was the second arrest made in the case. Morgan Turtle, 23, was charged earlier with assault with a weapon.
It was one of the first days of spring, and goose hunting was on everyone’s mind in Nibinamik.
Geese had been spotted flying from the south for the first time that morning. Hunters were ready, taking skidoos out on the still-frozen lake to their blinds across the water.
Meanwhile boats and canoes stood at the ready along the shoreline, waiting for the last of the ice to melt away.
A Canada goose expert says the small number of geese seen by hunters on the James Bay coast this year is not due to a population decrease, but rather to the warm winter seen across the North.
Jack Hughes, a waterfowl biologist with Environment Canada, says that the warm winter on the coast has resulted in less snow and ice cover on the bird’s breeding grounds than what is normally seen. Because of that the geese have dispersed over a much wider geographical range than normal, making them harder for hunters to spot.
Last summer, a forest fire came within 13 kilometres of igniting a stash of almost one million litres of fuel just west of Sachigo Lake.
It was mostly a matter of luck that the community avoided the catastrophe it has been warning the provincial government about.
But while the fire had the community on edge, it may also have spurred the government to act on the issue of the old fuel, which Sachigo Lake has been pressing for cleanup for over two decades.
Shaniah Linklater sees hockey in her future.
The 16-year-old from Moose Factory watched the 2010 women’s Olympics hockey tournament with stars in her eyes.
When it was all over, Linklater knew that was where she wanted to be.
“Watching the girls win the gold at the Olympics, I want that experience,” Linklater says. “It made me want to keep going with hockey.”
Linklater will take a big step towards her goal when she laces up the skates for Team Ontario at the National Aboriginal Hockey Championships in Saskatoon, Sask. from May 6-12.
I am the product, evolution of many thousands of years as are you. I grew up on the land in the remote far north of Ontario following in the footsteps of my...
One of the most beautiful serene places I’ve ever visited was on the banks of the Opinagau River in northern Ontario, just near the corner of land where...