Wawatay elects new board

Kingfisher Lake’s Micah Winter and Wunnumin Lake’s Vivian Waswa have been appointed as vice president and secretary of Wawatay Native Communications Society’s new board of directors.
“I’d like to make sure our language and culture is enhanced,” Winter said. “My hope is to see gospel jamborees on the Internet, so to have a better Internet system in place too.”
Winter feels that Wawatay is doing a good job with its live broadcasts.
“It produces about $250,000 (annually), so hopefully we can get that higher,” Winter said.
Waswa wants to increase awareness about what youth are doing through Wawatay’s communications services.
“I’d like to be more aware of what is going on with the youth,” Waswa said. “I like to organize things.”
Winter, Waswa and Constance Lake’s Fred Sackaney were elected Nov. 17 to their first term as directors during Wawatay’s Annual General Meeting (AGM) in Thunder Bay. The three-day event featured a Communications Conference and a Gala Dinner Nov. 15, the AGM Nov. 16 and board of director elections Nov. 17.
“I’m looking forward to working with the board because I think we have a good team here – there’s experienced board members here right now,” Sackaney said. “With Wawatay, it’s going to be good for helping out with continuing to preserve the Native languages and to support the programs that are going to teach whoever is interested in learning the Native languages, Oji-Cree and Cree.”
Fort Albany’s Mike Metatawabin, Sandy Lake’s Nick Day, Peawanuck’s Mike Hunter and Fort Severn’s Genevieve Kakekaspan were re-elected for another term as directors.
Metatawabin returns as president while Kakekaspan is the new treasurer.
Metatawabin and Sackaney were elected during the vote for East directors, while Waswa and Winter were acclaimed as West directors.
Hunter, Day and Kakekaspan were acclaimed as Directors At Large.