Melinda Henderson of North Spirit Lake First Nation sat in the front passenger seat of the vehicle I was driving on a Sunday evening. I had just picked her up at Thunder Bay airport and she seemed to be finally taking a breather.
Henderson was fresh from Sudbury, Ont., where she had completed her first try at winning a crown fit for a beauty queen.
It’s funny that the last column I wrote for Wawatay was about staying strong as a family and keeping my son safe. I wrote about his photos on the walls and how his toys are everywhere.
Back in 2008, I was up one night searching the term “Aboriginal authors” online. As a would-be author, I wanted to get a better sense of the kinds of Anishinaabe writers out there that I would hopefully one day be writing alongside.
A few familiar names came up like Tomson Highway, Joseph Boyden, and Drew Hayden Taylor, but another result that stood out to me was the Canadian Aboriginal Writing Challenge, which is now known as The Canadian Aboriginal Writing and Arts Challenge.
“It’s still kind of hard, some of the youth don’t open up to us too much,” Kassie Rae said about the youth in the Harvest Time Church Youth Group. “But we still try to talk to them. We try to help.”
It’s been almost two months since the Harvest Time Church Youth Group has been in existence, and Rae is happy with the work she and her fellow group leader Tobia Rae have been doing in their community of North Spirit Lake.
Rita Thompson was elected Chief of North Spirit Lake (NSL), First Nation on June 29, winning her third straight term.
In the community of just under 500 members, Thompson received 80 votes.
Rachel Oombash was elected Deputy Chief with 37 votes. This will be her first time serving on Chief and Council. Oombash said that she was “very surprised” when she found out she had been elected, and hopes to “help the people.” She said she is looking forward to learning the ropes of her new job as Deputy Chief.
Efforts geared at increasing Aboriginal voter participation took place in Thunder Bay on July 27.
The program brought Aboriginal education students to Thunder Bay’s city hall for a day of learning about civic literacy.
Joan Esquega, a fourth-year bachelor of education student at Lakehead University, felt it was very important to partake in the engagement session at City Hall.
“We, as Aboriginal teachers, need to realize that it’s important for us to bring this knowledge into our classrooms, to teach our children the importance of voting,” Esquega said.
When Alice Sabourin, an Ojibwe woman of Pic River First Nation, first set off at the age of 22 to attend university in 1984, she had a vague idea of who she wanted to be like.
“Bev Sabourin – my cousin. She’s a very professional, educated, well-established and reputable person,” Sabourin said of her mentor. She knew that if she followed in her cousin Bev’s footsteps, she would someday reach the same caliber.
Joe Keesick of North Spirit Lake First Nation just turned 25 years old in July. He celebrated his birthday in Lethbridge, Alberta, then packed up his car and made the drive back to Ontario.
He is headed to Burlington, Ontario to scope out a training center.
“There is a Tapout gym there,” Keesick explained. “My last fight in June, I met a coach and he invited me to come down to Burlington.”
Keesick has been a mixed-martial arts (MMA) fighter since he was 19 years old. Prior to his decision to pursue MMA, Keesick played a lot of hockey.
"A troubled young person may bring negative impact to the society later on when they grow up. If we can show our care for them and offer them help when it’s needed, I think we will be able to sustain a better society with love and harmony.” – from Zhigui Du’s eulogy for her son, Jun Lin.
Du and her husband recently laid the ashes of their son to rest in the city of Montreal. Lin was a Chinese student who was attending Montreal’s Concordia University when he was brutally murdered in May of this year. His untimely death made headlines around the world.
School is about to start up again for many Ontario schools, including Dennis Franklin Cromarty High School (DFC).
But unlike most schools in the province, DFC is preparing to welcome Elders as well as students into the new school year.
“There have always been Elders at the school from the start,” Jonathan Kakegamic, principal of DFC, said. “The past two to three years, we have increased our Elders. We have seven Elders at the school now.”
Kakegamic said that having an Elder present in the school gives the students a sense of security and a sense of community.
I was happy to see our First Nation youth continue to speak out against proposed mining development in the far north in the so-called Ring of Fire region....
Winter road season has finally started again on the James Bay coast. This seasonal ice road is an important transportation route for everyone because it...