Northern College held its 12th annual powwow at its Porcupine campus on April 6 and 7.
The theme for this year’s powwow was Honouring our Mother Earth.
The powwow offered a weekend of traditional drumming, dancing, arts and crafts, workshops and educational booths.
Northern College celebrated the grand opening of the new permanent 700-square foot teepee at its South Porcupine campus on April 5.
Designed in the likeness of a traditional teepee, the permanent structure is located on the south side of the campus facing Porcupine Lake. It is temperature controlled, ventilated, and connected to the college to enable year-round use.
The number of Canada geese that migrate north this spring is expected to be the same as in the past 10 to 20 years, according to a waterfowl biologist with Environment Canada.
Jack Hughes, manager of population conservation with Canadian Wildlife Service, said a survey conducted last spring showed the number of geese that fly north was normal.
“We really haven’t seen a decline in geese in recent years,” he said. “The numbers appear to be holding pretty steady.”
Attawapiskat has been reimbursed for the fees charged by the third party manager that was imposed on the First Nation in December 2011 after the community’s housing crisis made the national spotlight.
Last December, the federal government agreed to transfer $136,132 to Attawapiskat to cover the costs of the third party manager it appointed to handle the First Nation’s finances a month after it declared a state of emergency.
The 10 youth walkers from Sachigo Lake reached Sioux Lookout on April 16, 11 days after they embarked on their 1,000-kilometre walk to Thunder Bay.
The walk, called the Journey of New Beginnings, is aimed at fundraising for the recently announced Dennis Franklin Cromarty Living Centre, which is scheduled to be open by the 2015-16 school year.
Among the walkers is Devon Thunder, who first attended DFC when he was 15. The 19-year-old knows the temptations and challenges students face when they leave their community for the city.
Two individuals in northern Ontario recently began initiatives to help bring lower food costs to the far north.
Wendy Kakekaspan of Fort Severn organized a semi-trailer to bring in supplies from Winnipeg for fellow community members while Joe Duncan of Muskrat Dam began a business out of Thunder Bay to ship food and other supplies up to northern communities.
Despite losing more than two weeks of the winter road season along the James Bay coast due to two separate blockades, De Beers Canada says it was able to ship the necessary fuel and supplies to its Victor Mine site.
Tom Ormsby, De Beers’ director of external and corporate affairs, said the diamond mining company was able to receive the “needed” shipments thanks to the longer winter season. The James Bay winter road officially closed on March 29, two weeks longer than the previous winter road season.
While hunters across the north await the first geese on the southern horizon, trappers celebrate high prices and lots of marten. And on Hudson Bay, polar bear numbers seem to be up despite what the province says.
As federal government officials met with what Ontario Regional Chief Stan Beardy called “a small number of chiefs” about the First Nations Education Act in Thunder Bay, dozens of people protested outside the consultation meeting.
The Chiefs of Ontario organized the April 11 protest, in order to show opposition to the proposed federal education act on which Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development of Canada (AANDC) officials were conducting consultations.
Although the community of Kasabonika Lake First Nation recently celebrated the grand opening of a new Northern Store, it finds itself struggling to identify economic opportunities due to a lack of electricity.
“There’s no room for growth,” said Ken Albany, a band councillor with the First Nation. “It goes back to the capacity of the power plant. It’s basically holding us back.”
When I was a boy growing up in my home community of Attawapiskat on the James Bay coast, I was deathly afraid of looking at the full moon.
I grew up...
I’m happy to see the ongoing support and assistance in our northern remote communities to help our people cope with so many lifelong and generational issues...