My home community of Attawapiskat First Nation is celebrating the annual graduations of students from Kattawapiskak Elementary School and Vezina Secondary...
I was happy to see my nieces and nephews in Attawapiskat taking the opportunity to learn about the traditional practice of making Nah-mesh-tek, the Cree...
Summer has finally arrived and the warm weather has us all excited and out and about. We have all endured a difficult winter and in fact a challenging past three years of the Covid19 pandemic. We deserve to have a great summer.
Beaverhouse First Nation made history on Saturday May 21 when leadership announced to their community citizens that the First Nation had achieved formal recognition as a First Nation from the government of Canada. The historic announcement was sent by the government on April 19, 2022 as an official letter from the Honourable Marc Miller, Minister of Crown-Indigenous Relations (ISC), stating that ‘Beaverhouse First Nation has demonstrated it is a section 35 rights-bearing First Nation collectivity’.
Many families along the James Bay coast are headed out onto their ancestral lands during this time of year. It is our most important season as so many events coincide that make it a perfect time to hunt and gather food. Even though it is still winter weather, temperatures moderate at around zero degrees which makes it more hospitable and manageable. This is also the time of the Niska, the Canada Goose migration where millions of these birds fly north for their summer nesting season.
This month has been a sad period for my family and friends as several Elders have passed on. It is sad to lose someone we love and so difficult to imagine all the stories, history and knowledge lost when these special people pass.
Hints of spring are all about with warmer days now and our record snow banks are slowly melting. This winter is not over just yet but here we are in mid March and it looks like the extreme freezing temperatures are in the past. We may still get some snow but those huge storms we have experienced this winter are probably gone for the most part. Yes, spring is blossoming with every day.
Winter ice roads have been a big part of life on the James Bay coast for decades. The road has existed in one form or another since the 50s and 60s when the American and Canadian military sent men and material north to the Hudson Bay coast to build the Mid Canada Radar Stations for the Cold War effort. Since those early years, the seasonal ice road has been maintained as it was the only means to transport heavy material over land from the rail head in Moosonee to places north like Attawapiskat, Fort Albany and Kashechewan.
As an indigenous person raised in a remote First Nation and on the land I am very familiar with my cultural and traditional roots. It was a steep learning curve for me to adapt, adjust and fit into the non Indigenous world when I first left Attawapiskat to further my education in the south.
When was the last time you went offline and spent time away from the internet and social media? How often do you find yourself checking to see what is happening online during your day?
The Walk of Sorrow participants arrived in Kirkland Lake, Ontario on Wednesday August 4 to create awareness of the residential school era and to acknowledge the support of local First Nations. The walk was led by Patricia Ballantyne, a First Nation Cree from the Deshchambault Lake community of Peter Ballantyne Cree Nation in Saskatchewan. This June she felt a need to do something in light of the discovery of multiple unmarked grave sites near former residential schools across the country.
In our Weenabaykoo Ininew Peemahteeseewin, our James Bay Cree way of life, Elders play a pivotal role in the lives of everyone in a community. In the James Bay Cree culture, our language, stories and history are all passed down in an oral tradition. We learn from the time we are children by listening to the stories our parents share with us and the teachings we hear from our Elders.
My home community of Attawapiskat First Nation is celebrating the annual graduations of students from Kattawapiskak Elementary School and Vezina Secondary...
I was happy to see my nieces and nephews in Attawapiskat taking the opportunity to learn about the traditional practice of making Nah-mesh-tek, the Cree...