As much as possible, I try to avoid driving on two-lane roads like Highway 11 in northern Ontario during the winter. There is something frightening that the only thing that separates me from oncoming traffic is an imaginary line in […]

More than seven months ago, I was on a roll as I embarked on the wonderful journey of sobriety. I knew it would be hard at times and I expected the cravings that I had during the first few weeks. […]

When the snow began to accumulate and the cold temperatures hardened the ground this winter, my older brother Ah-twen headed out into the open tundra north of Attawapiskat. His English name is pronounced Antoine Kataquapit and he is a traditional […]

I cannot recall many winters as cold as this one. This winter started with a lot of snowstorms in December and then in January we got more snow and the temperatures here in northern Ontario dropped to -30º and felt […]

One of the most talked-about stories on social media and news sites recently has been the disturbing video of an Indigenous Elder and a group of predominantly Caucasian teenagers in Washington, DC. Video footage shows Elder Nathan Phillips chanting and […]

Northern Ontario is a fantastic place to be born and raised in. Much of this vast land is composed of wilderness with sparkling lakes and rivers. We still have a lot of wildlife living here and many of us hunt […]

Christmas has once again come and gone. Everyone was running around buying gifts, decorating their house, attending church services to commemorate Christian holy days and generally enjoying a lot of excitement and anticipation. We seldom wonder where these traditions came […]

Last summer, Robert Lepage’s theatre production, Kanata, sparked controversy. The play, a collaboration between Ex-Machina and the French theatre company Théâtre du Soleil, addresses the relationships between Canadians and Indigenous peoples. It focuses on residential schools, missing and murdered Indigenous […]

For some time now huge companies have been bottling groundwater and selling it for huge profits. Companies like Nestlé pay very little for this public resource. Many people believe water is becoming the new gold and that future wars will […]

A recent article in The Atlantic magazine, “The Blackfeet Brain Drain” made an impression on me. Written by Sterling Holywhitemountain, the first lines read: “Some Native kids who leave to pursue education find themselves stuck between a longing to help […]