I recently lost my cousin Joey Okimaw. We were childhood friends who had grown up together since we first entered grade school in Attawapiskat. Joey’s...
I was surprised recently when I saw my relatives in my home community of Attawapiskat First Nation on the James Bay coast were still having to fetch water...
This wave of cold weather reminds me that I do not have a lot of motorcycle riding time left and that summer will soon be turning into fall. Students are heading back to school and some of the birds are already flying south.
Youth Rising Together held a rally in Mattagami First Nation to allow local First Nation youth an opportunity to show their support of grassroots youth movements. The event was led by youth organizers in Mattagami FN to give voice to young people in the community who are concerned about recent government legislation.
Chief Jennifer Constant spoke to the group and showed her support to First Nation youth as they voiced their concerns regarding legislation that will affect First Nation lands and rights in the future.
My home community of Attawapiskat First Nation will be holding a local election this month on August 29. It is an exciting time not just for those living in the community but for those members, like myself, who now live and work in southern cities and towns away from the James Bay coast. This will officially be the first community election where off-reserve members who don’t reside in the community will have the opportunity to vote for their leadership. Although off reserve voting had occurred in previous elections, it was in a very limited capacity.
Grassroots First Nation youth welcomed the arrival of the Mahmo Inninuwuk Wiibuseego-stamok walkers at Queens Park in Toronto on Friday August 8, 2025. The walking group completed their 22 day and over 700 km walking journey from downtown Timmins to Queens Park at a combined rally held together with First Nation youth groups Youth Rising Together and Okiniwak. The awareness walk and rally at Queen’s Park was organized by these grassroots youth movements to show their dissatisfaction of Ontario’s Bill 5 and Canada’s Bill C5.
Attawapiskat First Nation is preparing for an upcoming local election for leadership set to take place on August 29, 2025. The community recently held a nomination meeting at the Reg Louttit Sportsplex Gym on Thursday July 31, 2025 to allow community members to nominate candidates for the election. The community will be electing leaders for the position of Chief, Deputy Chief and 11 Council members. The meeting included members of Attawapiskat FN as well as First Nation members who participated through live online teleconferencing from different locations.
For almost three decades I have been writing a column and producing writing mostly involving First Nations. At the start I felt more like an activist as did many of our leaders. We had been through more than a hundred years of colonization, residential school atrocities, reservations and living in poverty with insufficient housing, poor health care and little support for education.
First Nation youth are continuing the push to make themselves heard with the actions of Mahmo Inninuwuk Wiibuseegostamok, a James Bay Cree phrase that means ‘Uniting the People to Stand Together’. The group has started a protest walk to travel from Timmins to Queen’s Park in the city of Toronto to bring awareness and attention to their dissatisfaction of Ontario’s Bill 5 and Canada’s Bill C5.
First Nation youth from northern Ontario protested a major meeting between hundreds of Chiefs and Prime Minister Mark Carney in Ottawa on Thursday July 17. The federal government had set up the meeting with the Chiefs in a tightly controlled event that was held at the Canadian Museum of History in Gatineau, Quebec. Jeronimo Kataquapit, an Attawapiskat First Nation youth leader led a group of 20 other young First Nation protesters to the entrance of the meeting and were turned away by security. Media had also been blocked from the event.
Jeronimo Kataquapit has made us all proud for his ability to live up to the title of his grass roots movement ‘Here We Stand – Call To Action’. In a Monday morning meeting with Mushkegowuk Council Chiefs leading up to the Thursday July 17 meeting with the federal government, Jeronimo took the opportunity to state to the leadership that we need to take a stand and that we all need to take action in order to protect our communities, First Nation rights and the lands and waterways we all live on.
Northern First Nation Chiefs and leaders came together on the Attawapiskat River on July 1 to show their support for a youth led protest against Ontario’s Bill 5 and Canada’s Bill C5. They came to meet with Jeronimo Kataquapit, a First Nation youth from Attawapiskat First Nation who is leading a protest to occupy the land and water way that the people of the Attawapiskat River call home.
I recently lost my cousin Joey Okimaw. We were childhood friends who had grown up together since we first entered grade school in Attawapiskat. Joey’s...
I was surprised recently when I saw my relatives in my home community of Attawapiskat First Nation on the James Bay coast were still having to fetch water...