Xavier Kataquapit

COVID19 is still a very prominent part of our lives. As much as we would like to think that this pandemic is coming to an end, it is still a very dangerous period for many people.

This past month, I lost my uncle Elder Alex Kataquapit through complications from the COVID19 virus. At 89 years of age, he was doing well for his age until he contracted the virus which completely weakened him and sent him to hospital. Older people and those with compromised health issues are most at risk with COVID19 but many younger people are also having problems and what is known as long COVID.

My people have a long history of dealing with new dangerous and deadly diseases that we had no protection against. During the First World War I lost my great-grandfather to the 1918 influenza pandemic when he left his homeland on James Bay to volunteer for the war overseas. He never returned and he now lies in a burial plot just outside the city of London. In the decades that followed, wave after wave of influenza, small pox, measles, polio and most commonly tuberculosis claimed many people on the James Bay coast because there was little to no immunity to these new diseases.

The 15th Annual Wabun Youth Gathering was held in Mattagami First Nation in a week long outdoor event from July 11 to 15 for over 70 Indigenous youth on the shores of Lake Mattagami. The event was organized by the Wabun Tribal Council Health Department with the support of the tribal council’s First Nations.

Summer has finally arrived and the warm weather has us all excited and out and about. We have all endured a difficult winter and in fact a challenging past three years of the Covid19 pandemic. We deserve to have a great summer.

Many families along the James Bay coast are headed out onto their ancestral lands during this time of year. It is our most important season as so many events coincide that make it a perfect time to hunt and gather food. Even though it is still winter weather, temperatures moderate at around zero degrees which makes it more hospitable and manageable. This is also the time of the Niska, the Canada Goose migration where millions of these birds fly north for their summer nesting season.