Xavier Kataquapit

Health leaders and advocates gathered at the Temiskaming Hospital on June 6 for the Grand Opening of the new Mino M’shki-ki Indigenous Health Team office in Temiskaming Shores. The opening of this new Indigenous health care office was made possible by the collaborative efforts of several organizations in the Temiskaming area in northeastern Ontario. Mino M’shki-ki, a name selected by an Elders Council translates as ‘good medicine’ and the title is meant to reflect the type of modern health care services that will be provided in a culturally sensitive environment.

It is time for the federal and provincial governments to seriously deal with the annual flooding and evacuations of Kashechewan First Nation or Kash as we, the Cree people of the James Bay, refer to it. Kashechewan, which is Cree for ‘where the water flows fast’, sits on the banks of the Albany River and has been flooding for a very long time on an annual basis.

At the start of this winter, when the snow began to accumulate and the cold temperatures had hardened the ground, my older brother Ah-twen headed out into the open tundra north of Attawapiskat. His English name is pronounced Antoine Kataquapit and he is a traditional hunter, trapper and knowledge keeper who has years of living on the land. The place he went to is called Mooshoowak, an area on the corner of land where the bays of the Hudson and James meet. The Cree word is a description that basically describes the land as ‘clear’ or ‘without features’.

As First Nation people, I know most of us worry about development on our lands by companies in mining, forestry, hydro and other resource sectors. We come by these suspicions honestly, as we have been left out of the loop with all kinds of development on our traditional lands for a more than a hundred years.

One of the most talked about news stories on social media and news sites recently had to do with a disturbing video of an Indigenous Elder and a group of young predominantly Caucasian teenagers in Washington DC. Video footage has shown the Elder, Nathan Phillips chanting and using his hand drum while participating in an Indigenous Peoples March as he walks peacefully into a group of young high school boys and is blocked by one of them. The boy is smirking at the Elder and his fellow students are making fun of Elder Phillips.