A joint inquest has been announced for the seven Nishnawbe Aski Nation youth who died while attending high school in Thunder Bay.
Brenda Mason’s stories about working with students with mental illness were a hit during the Ontario Native Education Counsellors Association’s 28th Annual Conference.
“Her format was storytelling and the oral traditions that she brought from her childhood that she heard from her grandparents and so on,” said Roger Chum, an Aboriginal learning unit counsellor at Canadore College and Moose Cree band member. “And applying that to the four models of the medicine wheel, the physical, mental, spiritual and emotional.”
Nishnawbe Aski Nation Elder Josias Fiddler was remembered for helping his people in many ways.
“This past school year he has been working with the students here at Dennis Franklin Cromarty High School,” said Norma Kejick, executive director of Northern Nishnawbe Education Council and a long-time friend of Fiddler’s. “For the first time our school has a drum. Those students brought that drum out for the Walk for Life this year.”
Fiddler also started up healing circles at DFC to deal with the student deaths in the rivers around Thunder Bay over the past 12 years.
Anishinabek Nation Grand Council Chief Patrick Madahbee has been acclaimed for a second consecutive term in office at the 2012 Grand Council Assembly in Sheguiandah.
“I’ve still got fight in me,” said the former chief of Aundeck Omni Kaning who was also elected as grand council chief in 1980. “It’s a good day and it’s been an awesome ceremony. I want to extend my thanks to our leaders, our citizens and to our ancestors. We have work to do yet, but that’s what we’re here for — to do the work.”
Mercury is still an on-going problem in Grassy Narrows and Wabaseemoong (Whitedog) as 59 per cent of community members tested in 2010 had mercury poisoning.
“Both the federal and provincial governments need to recognize and effectively address the lasting issue of mercury exposure in First Nation communities along the English Wabigoon River system,” said National Chief Shawn A-in-chut Atleo.
A secret ingredient passed down from her kokum keeps Yvonne Pitchenese’s customers coming back for more and more frybread.
“The bannock is more the signature of this restaurant,” said Pitchenese, owner of Girly’s Restaurant in Wabigoon Lake. “They come for the bannock burger and the taco.”
Pitchenese serves a variety of meals, but Indian tacos, bannock burgers, poutine and fresh-cut fries are her specialties.
“And wild rice soup, when I make it at certain times of the year,” Pitchenese said. “We make it the traditional way; it tastes better.”
Cat Lake Chief Matthew Keewaykapow returned to where he feels most comfortable during an early June canoe trip to raise awareness and funds for a community prescription drug abuse treatment program.
“I felt like I was going home,” Keewaykapow said. “It felt like home over there in the bush.”
Keewaykapow completed the 100-kilometre canoe trip over four days, from 7 a.m. on June 1 to 10:30 p.m. on June 4, with his partner and six-year-old son. They travelled to where
Keewaykapow was born at his family’s old commercial fishing camp on Whitestone Lake.
Clients appreciate the time and care they are receiving at the new Anishnawbe Mushkiki Nurse Practitioner-Led Clinic in Thunder Bay.
“They love it; they’re happy,” said Deborah McGoldrick, nurse practitioner clinic lead at the new clinic. “We work differently. We have a little bit more time to spend with people and they appreciate that. And because it’s chronic disease management, you can’t do appointments in five, 10, 15 minutes.”
McGoldrick said the clinic has already helped a number of patients who had uncontrolled diabetes.
Poplar Hill’s Alice Suggashie is an inspiration for students of all ages throughout Nishnawbe Aski Nation.
“Alice is an example of perseverance and showing that it is never too late to complete your education and to pursue your goals,” said Darrin Potter, principal of Keewaytinook Internet High School (KiHS). “She has persevered, she has worked full time, and she has come in and worked through that high school requirement to get that diploma.”
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...