Recently, while covering an event as part of my work, I was surprised at a question that came my way. That query came from the voice of a child.
Little Michael Tomagatick looked up at me and asked, “Do you speak your language?”
I told him yes in the Cree dialect from the Attawapiskat area.
The big news everywhere these days is about the housing crisis and the terrible third world conditions in my home community of Attawapiskat First Nation. It is time that this news has gone viral.
Christmas is right around the corner. It is supposed to be a time of peace, love and good will to each other. Instead, I feel more or less heart broken.
I thought that when Canada found out about my people in Attawapiskat and their lack of quality housing, they would have responded in a positive way. I hoped that governments and the Canadian population would understand just how difficult life is for most Native people who are living on remote First Nations right across Canada.
We are all looking forward to a new year but many are fearful of the coming of 2012. Some believe that the upcoming year is marking the end of an historic period. Many think that this year will be a spiritually changing one and far too many believe it will mark the end of the world. This idea has been boosted in popular culture through movies, books and websites detailing how and why this year will mark the end.
Winter ice roads could be fading away and airships might be taking over. A report by the Conference Board of Canada is suggesting that airships like the ones that dominated the skies in the 1920s and 1930s could serve remote First Nation communities.
Travelling in the north has always been a hazard for all kinds of reasons. The remoteness makes it difficult to have all the latest technologies in place. It is not like life in the south where many safety precautions are in place for the every day traveller no matter what their means of transport. The weather is a risk factor in the north most of the year but in the winter time things can actually be deadly.
It is as cold as a ‘you know what’. That’s right: we are into a cold spell right now in Northern Ontario and even in the south. However, this winter is very warm compared to past years. The winter ice road to Attawapiskat just recently opened and it looks like it won’t last all that long.
Still, minus 20 and 30 below zero days and nights are still being experienced in the far north of Ontario although that is getting more and more rare. I recall many days at minus 40 below zero when I was a boy back home up the James Bay coast. That was normal back then.
I sure am a lucky guy. Most of the time I take my life and all that I enjoy for granted but every once in a while I pause to think of so much I have to be grateful for. Stopping to remember to feel gratitude has helped keep me grounded and positive.
In June 2000, I wrote a column on the J.R. Nakogee Elementary school and the fact that it had been closed down due to contamination from an estimated 70,000 litres of diesel fuel over many years of leakage. I pointed out that it was distressing to know that the leakage had been going on for years and parents as well as educators were lobbying for something to be done. Well, guess what? The federal government announced March 6 that it was moving ahead with plans to finally build a new school for the children of Attawapiskat.
Recently in the news there has been concern for the people of Fort Albany and Kashechewan First Nations due to the flooding. This type of danger is an annual worry that has to do with the damming of rivers by large floating chunks of ice.
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