“The children and youth of Pikangikum have been taking their lives at an extraordinary rate for a number of years,” reads the opening line of the summary of the Office of the Chief Coroner’s Death Review of the Youth Suicides at the Pikangikum First Nation.
The report also includes a list of striking characteristics that came out as a result of the review of the deaths from 2006-2008, and it is quite depressing.
A program geared at teaching Aboriginal men to live their lives without violence against women gets set to start in Thunder Bay in September.
Kizhaay Anishinaabe Niin is a community reintegration project that one worker describes as teaching Aboriginal men to “live like Aboriginal men.”
Martin White, a Kizhaay Anishinaabe Niin worker who runs the program out of the Thunder Bay Indian Friendship Center, said he works with Aboriginal men who are abusive to their spouse by reintroducing them to the traditional teachings and practices of Aboriginal people.
When I was researching the issue of First Nations women who are involved in prostitution, I felt a knot in my stomach. It seemed the more I read, the more I learned, the more questions I asked – the more the knot tightened.
Eventually the knot just sat there at the pit of my stomach and emitted this overwhelming sadness.
I almost stopped working on the story; it started to affect me too much.
Finding an affordable and safe place to live in Thunder Bay has never been easy for a lot of First Nations individuals who have to move to, or reside in, Thunder Bay.
Low-income housing organizations in the city have waiting lists that are months, often years long.
“Violence is an abuse of power that greatly limits, if not stops, all family members’ abilities to seek and reach mino-pimatisiwin (the good life),” reads a line from Michael Anthony Hart’s book Seeking Mino-Pimatisiwin: An Aboriginal Approach to Helping.
The “good life” is different for everyone in any situation, and for some First Nations women in isolated, northern communities who are affected by family violence, it can be very difficult to find that life and start to heal. On Oct. 19, a new help-line was launched to help those isolated women start their journey to healing.
“I would say that I always wanted to be a writer,” said David Alexander Robertson from his home in Winnipeg, Manitoba. “It wasn’t until about 2005 that I started to consider the comic book-graphic novel world, but I never wanted to be anything else other than a writer.”
Robertson is a Swampy Cree graphic novelist. He was raised in the River Heights neighbourhood of Winnipeg. Growing up, he always read a variety of things. “Tom’s Midnight Garden was my favourite book,” he said.
Comic books were always his favourite, though.
Laughter proved to be the best medicine as four Aboriginal comedians performed at a fundraiser show for the holidays.
Patrick Cheechoo, A.J Mandamin, Todd Genno, and headliner Ron Kanutski performed before a near sellout crowd in a show called Laughter: The Best Medicine Comedy Night, which was held Dec. 22 at the Paramount Theatre in Thunder Bay.
Electronic dance music (EDM) deejay Classic Roots, also known as 24-year old Josh DePerry, is packing up his equipment and cardigans this month.
The Long Lake #58/Red Cliff band member is making the move from Thunder Bay to Toronto in search of bigger things.
During a packed going-away party on Jan. 12 at a local club, fans and friends bid farewell to deejay Classic Roots, whom Walleye Magazine recently rated one of the three best deejays in Thunder Bay.
SEVEN youth magazine, launched in 2007, will resume publication this coming April after a year-long hiatus. Wawatay is committed to recommencing the publication of SEVEN.
The magazine will come out four times a year inside a volume of Wawatay News, and will continue to be comprised of content generated by First Nations youth for First Nations youth – with the majority of the material coming from SEVEN readers themselves.
On Dec. 27, 2012 a First Nations woman in Thunder Bay was abducted off of the street by two men in a car and taken a remote area where she was violently sexually assaulted. Due to the racially motivated nature of the assault, police are treating it is a possible hate-crime.
Christi Belcourt, a noted artist and close friend of the victim, has been acting as the spokesperson for the family. Out of fear of the attacker’s reprisal upon finding out their victim did not die, the family would like to remain anonymous.
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...