Hints of spring are all about with warmer days now and our record snow banks are slowly melting. This winter is not over just yet but here we are in mid March and it looks like the extreme freezing temperatures are in the past. We may still get some snow but those huge storms we have experienced this winter are probably gone for the most part. Yes, spring is blossoming with every day.
Winter ice roads have been a big part of life on the James Bay coast for decades. The road has existed in one form or another since the 50s and 60s when the American and Canadian military sent men and material north to the Hudson Bay coast to build the Mid Canada Radar Stations for the Cold War effort. Since those early years, the seasonal ice road has been maintained as it was the only means to transport heavy material over land from the rail head in Moosonee to places north like Attawapiskat, Fort Albany and Kashechewan.
As an indigenous person raised in a remote First Nation and on the land I am very familiar with my cultural and traditional roots. It was a steep learning curve for me to adapt, adjust and fit into the non Indigenous world when I first left Attawapiskat to further my education in the south.
When was the last time you went offline and spent time away from the internet and social media? How often do you find yourself checking to see what is happening online during your day?
The Walk of Sorrow participants arrived in Kirkland Lake, Ontario on Wednesday August 4 to create awareness of the residential school era and to acknowledge the support of local First Nations. The walk was led by Patricia Ballantyne, a First Nation Cree from the Deshchambault Lake community of Peter Ballantyne Cree Nation in Saskatchewan. This June she felt a need to do something in light of the discovery of multiple unmarked grave sites near former residential schools across the country.
In our Weenabaykoo Ininew Peemahteeseewin, our James Bay Cree way of life, Elders play a pivotal role in the lives of everyone in a community. In the James Bay Cree culture, our language, stories and history are all passed down in an oral tradition. We learn from the time we are children by listening to the stories our parents share with us and the teachings we hear from our Elders.
The news that the graves of 215 children had been discovered near the site of a former residential school in Kamloops, British Columbia came as shock to me, my family and to every First Nation person across the country. As shocking as it was, it was also knowledge we had known about our entire lives.
Beaverhouse First Nation along with many organizations in the province are filling the gap in vaccinating the urban Indigenous population against Covid19. The vaccine roll out has been moving ahead in Northeastern Ontario Indigenous First Nations through the efforts of the Assembly of First Nations (AFN), Chiefs of Ontario (COO), Nishnawbe-Aski Nation (NAN), Mushkegowuk Council, Wabun Tribal Council and other Tribal Councils in association with the government of Canada, government of Ontario and local public health agencies.
When I look up at the clear blue sky these days I am missing something. For about a year now during this wretched pandemic I have hardly seen any contrails of national and international flights. For the first time in modern flight history there are hardly any aircraft in the skies. Worldwide air travel has decreased by an average of 80 percent, with Europe last December falling to as much as 98 percent less air travel than the previous year as countries closed their borders. I think we all miss air travel and the ability to move about freely.
My home community is mourning the loss of two special Elders who were deeply loved and admired by so many in Attawapiskat. My Aunt Theresa Kataquapit was a kind matriarch to her family and encouraged and supported those around her quietly with openness and love. My Uncle John Paulmartin was a highly respected hunter and trapper who raised his family to become strong capable individuals and he taught so many of us to be good and hard working through his quiet example.
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...