Xavier Kataquapit

It is as cold as a ‘you know what’. That’s right: we are into a cold spell right now in Northern Ontario and even in the south. However, this winter is very warm compared to past years. The winter ice road to Attawapiskat just recently opened and it looks like it won’t last all that long.
Still, minus 20 and 30 below zero days and nights are still being experienced in the far north of Ontario although that is getting more and more rare. I recall many days at minus 40 below zero when I was a boy back home up the James Bay coast. That was normal back then.

In June 2000, I wrote a column on the J.R. Nakogee Elementary school and the fact that it had been closed down due to contamination from an estimated 70,000 litres of diesel fuel over many years of leakage. I pointed out that it was distressing to know that the leakage had been going on for years and parents as well as educators were lobbying for something to be done. Well, guess what? The federal government announced March 6 that it was moving ahead with plans to finally build a new school for the children of Attawapiskat.

Spring is here and it is time to get in shape. 
Let’s face it, most Canadians are not in the best physical shape.  As a First Nation person, I can say that the Native peoples of Canada are generally in really bad shape.
For the past 10 years, I have been struggling to keep my weight down. I eat too much and I don’t exercise enough. This past winter, I scared the heck out of myself when I hit 200 pounds for the first time and I am five feet eleven inches. People say I wear my weight well but I don’t feel great and as I am becoming middle aged, it is becoming a problem.

This winter was the strangest one that I have ever seen when it comes to being sick. I was actually ill with some kind of lung infection for three months. Many of my family members and friends were also sick with this type of infection. It was terrible as I had a sore throat for awhile, then lost my voice and then coughed for a couple of months.

The past few weeks have been very anxious for so many people in northern Ontario who have had to deal with huge forest fires.
These fires are no surprise to Native elders.
Many Elders I speak to have been warning of the climate changing for a few years now. They worry that the weather will become very hot and the forest dry.