Lenny Carpenter — Wawatay News

A partnership in Timmins is in place to supply handmade crafts made by local and regional Aboriginal artisans and craft makers.
Niska Artisans is a program to assist Aboriginal artists by purchasing their handmade crafts such as moosehide moccasins and mitts, beaver hats, berets, tamarack birds and purses. The products are then sold at the Ojibway and Cree Cultural Centre (OCCC) where anyone can purchase the items.
“It started several years ago because there was a demand for handmade products,” said Helen Kataquapit, Aboriginal artisans assistant.

Courtney Koostachin had already overcome the odds by the time she was five years old.
By then, she had already underwent three liver transplants.
Doctors told her parents that her body might reject her liver before she was 10.
She defied those odds by living well into her teens. However, the odds finally caught up to her.
Koostachin, a 17-year-old Fort Albany resident, died in a Toronto hospital Nov. 18.

Former Attawapiskat First Nation chief Theresa Okimaw-Hall has been appointed the executive director of KWG Resources’ subsidiary, Canada Chrome Corporation (CCC).
The company has staked a corridor of claims from the Ring of Fire to Exton, Ont. and has conducted a $15 million surveying and soil testing program for the engineering and construction of a railroad that will pass through the traditional territories of Webequie and Marten Falls.
Okimaw-Hall is tasked with working with the communities to reach an agreement for a shared ownership of the proposed railway.

Attawapiskat Chief Theresa Spence has filed an injunction against the Aboriginal Affairs decision to put her community’s finances on third party management despite a promise that it would be lifted once the housing crisis is over.
Spence said the paperwork was signed immediately following her 90-minute meeting with Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development Minister John Duncan on Dec. 15 in Thunder Bay after Duncan “insisted that the third party has to be involved in this crisis.”

In an exciting 2-1 double-overtime victory, Sudbury’s Copper Cliff Hawks defeated the Moose Factory Scrappers to win the inaugural Taykwa Tagamou Nation Men’s Recreational Tournament championship.
The Aboriginal hockey tournament took place from Dec. 8-11 at the Tim Horton Event Centre in Cochrane, Ont., which features an NHL-sized rink.
The Copper Cliff Hawks took the $18,000 prize over seven other teams that entered the tournament. The Mistassini team defeated the Moosonee Cree Aski to take the $6,000 consolation prize.