Rick Garrick — Wawatay News

Championship hockey will rule this weekend with the Northern First Nations finals scheduled on Friday and Saturday and the Northern Bands finals on Sunday.
“It’s exciting and I look forward to seeing what’s happening,” said Margaret Kenequanash, Sioux Lookout’s Northern First Nations tournament organizer. “We have (the C-Side) final on Friday evening. Then on Saturday we’ll do B-Side final at 10 a.m. and A-Side at noon.”

As winter road seasons continue to become more unpredictable, a number of companies and governments are examining the possibility of transporting goods to remote communities by airships.
One of the companies involved in examining the use of hybrid airships for transport in northern Ontario is First Nations owned and operated Wasaya Airways.
“Our interest has always been to keep abreast of what is happening in the region so we are not left out,” said Wasaya Airways President and CEO Tom Morris.

Keewaytinook Okimakanak has partnered with a group of researchers to get more youth involved in information and communication technologies.
“The lead researcher, Susan O’Donnell, went and lived up in North Spirit Lake for two months,” said Franz Seibel, research director at Keewaytinook Okimakanak Research Institute.
“She found out that North Spirit wanted to set up this new e-community, where all of the services that are Internet based can have a place where they share, learn and innovate together and get the new generation of youth involved.”

Barry Waboose’s efforts to save two lives and deliver a baby were recognized on March 14 by the Sioux Lookout First Nations Health Authority.
“I’m just glad that everybody was OK and everything worked out right,” said the Jeremiah McKay Kabayshewekamik (Hostel) security guard who helped a woman in delivery, saved a woman who was choking and revived a young man who had attempted suicide. “It’s just nice knowing you can help people. I’ve got a good rapport with a lot of the clients here — they know they can trust me and they know if they need help, I will be there for them.”

Peawanuck Elder Louis Bird is looking to find new opportunities to share the Omushkego (Swampy Cree) stories he has gathered over the past half century.
“I want to write those stories,” Bird said during the Toronto Storytelling Festival, held March 16-24. “I want to write them in a book so they can be kept somewhere in our communities so when I die or when we die, our children — who will seek where they came from or why am I Indian or what happened — so they can find a book with the stories. That’s the idea.”