Stephanie Wesley

Tears 4 Justice, previously known as Walk 4 Justice, arrived in Thunder Bay on the weekend of July 20 and held an event at the Labour Center on July 22.
The group of eight volunteers are currently walking across Canada in order to spread awareness on the issue of missing and murdered Aboriginal women.
The group was met and housed by local supporters, including Sharon Johnson. Johnson has also been walking in memory of her sister, Sandra, whose murder in the East End of Thunder Bay in 1992 is still unsolved. Johnson hosts the annual Full Moon Memory Walk in Thunder Bay.

For a folk singer from the small town of Sioux Lookout, performing on national television last week was just another step on his way to musical success.
Singer songwriter Nick Sherman performed at the Aboriginal People’s Choice Music Awards (APCMA) in Winnipeg last week, which was broadcasted live on the Aboriginal People’s Television Network (APTN) as well as online.

In October, the bridge from Thunder Bay to Fort William First Nation was set on fire, igniting some ill-thought posts on Twitter from local youth. The “tweets” about the bridge being burned did not go unnoticed, and a blogger posted screencaps of the tweets to an essay about Canada’s racism epidemic.
The essay caused a lot of debate from city residents via Facebook on whether the tweets were or were not racist.

As great as 2013 was, I am looking forward to what 2014 will bring.
This year, I have spoken to so many insightful, intelligent, and all-round wonderful people
Just recently, I spoke with a group of females who left a huge impression on me.
I interviewed a group of five girls (four members of Constance Lake First Nation, one a member of Lac Seul) for SEVEN Nishnawbe Youth Magazine. The girls are working together to create and release anti-bullying videos, and they are building quite a following doing it.

The Kitchenuhmaykoosib Inninuwug (KI) youth who invited 43 Canadians from across the country into their community in June is Wawatay’s youth story of the year.
The week-long trip to KI was the first time many of the 43 guests visited a First Nations reserve.
The event was spearheaded by four youth: Justin Beardy, Faith McKay, Leona Matthews and Karyn Paishk.
McKay said the goal of the event was to bridge the gap between non-Aboriginal and Aboriginal people and dispel negative perspectives of indigenous people.