Xavier Kataquapit

Wabun Tribal Council hosted the 17th Annual Wabun Youth Gathering for senior Indigenous youth in Beaverhouse First Nation. The gathering which was held from August 12 to 15, 2024 is the second half of this annual gathering which is meant for youth from the ages of 14 to 18. The first part of the event was held in Mattagami FN on July 15 to 17 for junior aged youth. These annual events are hosted and organized by the Wabun Tribal Council Health Department with the support of the tribal council’s member First Nations.

My home community of Attawapiskat First Nation on the James Bay coast has been filled with excitement for the past few months in anticipation of Kattawapiskak Keekehwin Gathering 2024. A major week long event from August 4 to 10 will be filled with lots of fun entertainment, games for children, feasting, fund raising activities and major live musical performances. The event will be complimented by the 2nd Annual Attawapiskat First Nation Education Authority (AFNEA) Wellness Initiative Pow Wow taking place on August 9 and 10.

I never quite realized how hard life was when I was growing up in my home community of Attawapiskat on the James Bay coast. At the time in the 1980s, our Elders saw the community as becoming modernized and more comfortable compared to what they had known a few decades before.

We have proof that when governments work together good things can happen and that was demonstrated in Matachewan First Nation when the community announced recently the settlement of a Treaty Land Entitlement (TLE) claim. The announcement was made on May 25, by Chief Alex ‘Sonny’ Batisse of Matachewan FN, along with Will Bouma, Parliamentary Assistant to the Ontario Minister of Indigenous Affairs on behalf of the Honourable Greg Rickford and also by the Honourable Gary Anandasangaree, Canada’s Minister of Crown–Indigenous Relations.

Every morning for a few weeks now I am waking up to the sound of Pee-Nay-Sheesh (small birds) singing outside my window. Mostly the singing is coming from the tree swallows flying frantically around in what seems like circles. I never learned the Cree name for this pretty little bird because they are rare to see on the James Bay coast. At this time of year, they are either mating or challenging each other for the ownership of the birdhouse I constructed a few years ago and perched on the garage roof.