Xavier Kataquapit

I enjoy listening to my dad Marius reminisce about his early life on the land around Attawapiskat. His family settled along the banks of the Attawapiskat River and they travelled regularly along the shores, tributaries and mushkeg surrounding the community. He grew up in a big family of seven brothers and one sister during a time when our people were still following a nomadic lifestyle on the land.

It is four in the morning, the room is dark and quiet as I lie still in my bed. I am in a cabin in the wilderness and in complete silence except that I can hear scurrying and scratching in the walls. The sounds move from the ceiling to my right, then shuffle overhead and disappear off to my left. A mouse or wahpookoosheesh, in the Cree language, has made his home in the crudely built plywood and insulated walls of the cabin I have rented. There are more than enough cracks, holes and broken boards in the building to allow a tiny mouse to crawl through these spaces.

Matachewan First Nation welcomed a host of dignitaries to a ground breaking ceremony of the $1.5 billion Young Davidson Mine on its traditional lands Sept. 10.
Northgate Minerals Corporation officials were joined by provincial, federal, First Nation, regional and municipal leaders in officially celebrating the rebirth of the historic gold mine destined to provide hundreds of jobs in a development that should run for at least 15 years.

I sat down with a friend the other night on a lawn swing after working around the yard. We watched the sun fall behind the pine trees on this cool fall evening. The weather was barely warm enough for us to linger on happily swinging. The swing had two opposing benches and a small table for drinks. The model we were using was a type I see in northern Quebec more often. Instead of the overhead swinging mechanism, the benches sat on two rollers set on grooved rails under the swing.

A presenter at the annual Diabetes Expo in Timmins Oct. 1 and 2 had some dire warnings for students attending his workshop.
“This is the first generation of Canadian children that will not outlive their parents,” said Chris Johnson, who also has diabetes. “This is the first time in history that this will happen and part of it is due to an inactive lifestyle.”
To counter diabetes, he said it’s important to make sure kids are active.
“We have to work like hell to get kids up and off their butts and to be physically active.”