I recently lost my cousin Joey Okimaw. We were childhood friends who had grown up together since we first entered grade school in Attawapiskat. Joey’s...
I was surprised recently when I saw my relatives in my home community of Attawapiskat First Nation on the James Bay coast were still having to fetch water...
Winter flu season is causing all kinds of sickness and notably for our senior citizens and those with compromised immune systems. This past couple of weeks have been so hard as two of my favourite Elders have passed. John Mercier of Timmins and Ignace Koostachin from my home community in Attawapiskat. They will always have a place in my heart and memories and they were known and well respected far and wide.
Attawapiskat First Nation is my home community and it was where I was born and raised with my family. When I think about where I grew up, I feel like I came from some different country or part of the world that is not part of Canada at all. It was so different to everything I later learned about that was outside my home community.
My father Marius Kataquapit, a hunter, trapper and traditional person from the remote Attawapiskat First Nation could understand the English language but seldom spoke it yet every night he tuned into the late night CBC news and he encouraged me to also. He was curious about everything and he believed it was important to have an awareness of what was going on in the world even though the news was often filled with war and tragic events. He made me aware that other outside forces had control of our lives.
When I first met my partner Mike’s mom Emily McGrath so many years ago I was immediately struck by how open and kind she was. Everyone knew her as Emmy and she reminded me so much of all the Elders I had grow up with in my family. I was a soft spoken Cree from the James Bay coast when I first got to know her. Life was intimidating for me when I first started to live and work as a writer away from my home community but Emmy made sure I was always safe, comfortable and looked after. I owe a lot of my transition to a new life to her.
Here we are in a new year and hoping that 2025 will be a positive experience for all of us as individuals and for our civilization on planet earth. If I did a full review of how things went over the past year it just might be a little depressing but it is good to face reality.
When I was a teenager attending high school in Timmins in the early 1990s people from the James Bay coast were just starting to get accustomed to the modern way of life in the south. There were not a lot of people who had drivers licenses and there were even less people who owned their own vehicles. It was a very special thing to see someone from the James Bay coast driving a vehicle and even more so if they owned the car or truck they were in.
I’m dedicating this column to my late brother Philip Kataquapit who passed away on Christmas Day in 1990 at the age of 16.
Chief Jennifer Constant, Mattagami First Nation was celebrated as one of the guests of honour at the inaugural Women In Mining Sudbury awards gala which was held on November 21. She was recognized as an Indigenous Trailblazer during the event in honour of her years of service and advocating for her First Nation as related to the mining industry.
I was raised knowing many people in my circle of family and friends who have had to deal with troubles and problems that they had no control over. As I grew up in my home community of Attawapiskat on the James Bay coast, tragedy and trauma just seemed be a normal part of life for everyone.
Every year at this time myself and my partner Mike have to deal with the devastating losses our families have had to live with due to war. The November 11 Remembrance Day commemoration has always been a day of great sadness in remembering the veterans of the First World War and the Second World War as well as other wars. Those memories have been compounded with more sad truths through the research we have been doing over the past few years. We are working on media projects concerning the two world wars and some of our discoveries have been shocking.
I recently lost my cousin Joey Okimaw. We were childhood friends who had grown up together since we first entered grade school in Attawapiskat. Joey’s...
I was surprised recently when I saw my relatives in my home community of Attawapiskat First Nation on the James Bay coast were still having to fetch water...