Archive for December, 2010

An independent assessment

While the federal government may have started to pay out common experience payments to residential school survivors in 2007, the end grows near for those who may still want to file for the Independent Assessment Process (IAP). Members of the […]

Youth environmental scholarships

If you are graduating from high school and have a real passion for the environment and have taken steps to show the world just how much you care, Earth Day Canada might just have something special for you. Earth Day […]

Mukash on spirituality

Since this fall, Oujé-Bougoumou has been in an uproar over spirituality, recently banning all forms of Native traditional practices within their communty. Having expressed a desire to share his feelings with all of Eeyou Istchee, the Nation decided to grant […]

ᒋᔖᔮᒄ ᑳ ᐅᑎᓈᑦ ᓈᐹᔥᐦ

ᒍᓯᕝ ᑯᐙᓂᔥ ᐋ ᒌ ᐋᑎᔫᐦᒑᑦ ᑳᐙᐙᒋᑲᒫᒡ ᐱᕌᔨᓐ ᐌᑉ ᑳ ᐃᑣᔥᑎᒫᑎᐦ ᐋᑎᔫᐦᑳᓐ ᑮᑆ ᐋ ᐃᐦᑎᑯᐦᒡ᙮ ᐊᐃ ᓂᑭ ᑎᐹᒋᒫᐤ, ᒋᔖᔮᒄ᙮ ᐋᐅᒄ ᐊᓐ ᑳ ᒌ ᑎᐹᒋᒫᑦ ᒍᐦᑯᒥᓂᐤ, ᐋ ᐐᒋᒫᔨᒡᐦ ᐊᐙᔑᔥᐦ᙮ ᒀᑖᑎᔫᐦᑳᓂᐎᒡ ᔨᐤ᙮ ᐃᑖᔨᐦᑎᒽ ᒋᔖᔮᒄ, ᐙᔖ ᒨᔥ ᓂᐹᔨᑯᔑᓈᐙ, ᐃᑖᔨᐦᑎᒽ ᐃᑖᐤ᙮ ᐊᑐᒡ ᑳᑭᔮ ᓂᑭ ᒌ […]

Be-“witched”, bothered and bewildered

The parents of Lana Wapachee, whose sweat lodge was recently dismantled in Oujé-Bougoumou, feel both insulted and persecuted by their community, chief and council after having the lodge, along with any other form of traditional spirituality, banned from the community. […]

Standing up to Section 74

About 100 Algonquins from Barriere Lake and many of their supporters took to the streets of Ottawa on December 13 to once again show to Canada that they will not accept Section 74 of the Indian Act being imposed on […]

Beating Murphy’s Law, northern style

The first pipes froze today, and it’s not yet Christmas. It wasn’t a fun sight, water and ice everywhere, but it was bound to happen sooner or later. Murphy’s Law works double time up here, in the far north. In […]

Crees open “Quebec embassy”

It is amusing – in some circumstances one might call it slightly alarming – to observe how effortlessly the leaders of the Cree Nation, as the eight Cree villages in Quebec now style themselves, have switched their policy towards the […]

Imagine all the people…

Do you remember exactly what you were doing 30 years ago this moment? As I write this, on the evening of December 8, 2010, I can vividly recall where I was on the same evening in 1980 and what I […]

Sometimes life seems unfair

Sometimes life does not seem fair. That’s how I felt when I heard the news about my friend Audrey Allaire on November 4. I was shocked to hear that she had passed away at the young age of 44. All […]