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Ontario Birchbark

Ontario Birchbark

Launched in 2002. A publication specifically designed to serve the Indigenous people of Ontario.

  • May 21, 2015
  • compiled by Shari Narine

The Toronto Catholic District School Board is piloting a program to help students of First Nation, Métis or Inuit background feel safe in self-identifying with their Aboriginal heritage while developing an awareness of their culture among all students. The program fosters positive role-models and helps to dispel stereotypes. Aboriginal graduate and undergraduate students from the Ontario…

  • May 21, 2015
  • compiled by Shari Narine

Legal Aid Ontario funding will bring two new community-based services to members of Grand Council Treaty #3. The group is providing $200,000 to hire, train and manage two Gladue caseworkers for one year. These caseworkers will write Gladue reports for Treaty #3 members in Kenora, Fort Frances, Dryden and Sioux Lookout. The reports will be available to accused people facing 90 or more days of…

  • May 21, 2015
  • compiled by Shari Narine

Alexander Hebert, 9, designer of the LEGO “Treaty of Niagara” wampum belt, was part of the launch by the province and the Union of Ontario Indians of a new education resource. “We are all Treaty people” is designed to help children learn about the treaty relationship in Ontario at an early age. Alexander, a citizen of Dokis First Nation living in Sturgeon Falls, was joined at the launch at UOI…

  • April 21, 2015
  • Compiled by Shari Narine

A Memorandum of Understanding has been signed between Trent University, Confederation College and First Nations Technical Institute acknowledging a unique relationship in Ontario. The MOU recognizes the ongoing partnership, which creates pathways for Aboriginal learners across the three institutions.†All three partners deliver Indigenous Studies programming that is well established, innovative…

  • April 21, 2015
  • Compiled by Shari Narine

Peel District School Board trustees approved a motion to start meetings with the statement:†We would like to acknowledge that we are on the traditional territory of the Mississaugas of the New Credit First Nation. Mississauga Wards 6 and 11 Trustee Robert Crocker brought the motion forward. Crocker is a former history teacher who always made a concerted effort to make First Nations history a…

  • April 21, 2015
  • Compiled by Shari Narine

Aroland, Eabametoong and Marten Falls First Nations have signed a forest tenure agreement on the Ogoki Forest in northwestern Ontario. The communities want to take control of forest management planning, harvesting, road construction, silviculture, environmental monitoring, reporting and also establish forest-based First Nations business ventures. Matawa Economic Development and Four Rivers…

  • April 21, 2015
  • Compiled by Shari Narine

Kina Gbezhgomi Child and Family Services has been designated as Ontario’s newest children’s aid society. This designation will result in KGCFS assuming child protection services for seven First Nation communities in the Manitoulin area. For the past 20 years KGCFS focused on providing prevention supports and services to First Nations children and families, with protection services provided by…

  • April 21, 2015
  • Compiled by Shari Narine

Ontario Native Education Counselling Association executive director Roxane Manitowabi and president Roger Chum display some of the gifts that will be offered in thanks for donations at various levels as they raise $85,000 to help honour Francis Pegahmagabow.

Pegahmagabow, from Wasauksing First Nation, is the most highly-decorated First Nations soldier of the Great War. ONECA leads a…

  • March 25, 2015
  • Compiled by Shari Narine

Métis youth Mélanie-Rose Frappier has received the Lieutenant Governor’s Ontario Heritage Award. The awards are presented annually to individuals, groups and communities that have made outstanding contributions to conserving Ontario’s heritage. Frappier is involved in a range of youth, community and cultural activities that led …cole secondaire du SacrÈ Cúur to nominate her for the Heritage…

  • March 25, 2015
  • Compiled by Shari Narine

Legal Aid Ontario is expanding Gladue writing services in northeastern Ontario with funding to Aboriginal Legal Services in Toronto to hire Gladue writers for Windsor, Sudbury, North Bay and Sault Ste. Marie. Gladue reports provide background on the lives of Aboriginal†people in conflict with the law. Jonathan Rudin with Aboriginal Legal Services in Toronto said hiring Gladue writers for the…

  • March 25, 2015
  • Compiled by Shari Narine

Algonquins of the Pikwàkanagàn First Nation have joined with Innergex Renewable Energy Inc to stop further development of the Nodinosi prospective wind project located near Mattawa. The Nodinosi project was located in the townships of Phelps, Olrig and Mattawan of the Nipissing District. With a proposed installed capacity of approximately 150 MW, it was in the very early stages of development…

  • March 25, 2015
  • compiled by Shari Narine

The Algonquins of Barriere Lake (ABL) filed a lawsuit against the government and their current and previous third-party managing companies, Hartel Financial Management Corp. and BDO Canada. The lawsuit for $30 million in damages claims that the government and managers have harmed the community “by mismanaging and withholding funds that were to be used for the benefit of the community and its…

  • March 25, 2015
  • Compiled by Shari Narine

Ontario Regional Chief Stan Beardy says Canada’s way of getting oil to market is in direct conflict with Indigenous rights and public safety. The statement comes after a second oil spill on Mattagami First Nation territory, the third CN derailment in northern Ontario in less than a month, and the second near the First Nation community within three weeks. While calls for cooperation between…

  • February 26, 2015
  • Compiled by Shari Narine

The Native Canadian Centre
of Toronto, on behalf of the Aboriginal Leadership Partners, will receive
$500,000 from the federal government’s Community Celebrations Fund to showcase
the Indigenous cultures of the Americas at the Toronto 2015 Pan American and
Parapan American Games.

 

The celebrations fund is a
two-year initiative that…

  • February 26, 2015
  • Compiled by Shari Narine

Rachel Garrick, from Hudson, and Nadine Arpin, from Sioux Lookout, are among the three pairs chosen for the third year of the NSI Aboriginal Documentary, a training course for producer/director teams looking to produce a short documentary.

 

Training bootcamp is two weeks in Winnipeg during which time students will attend sessions with more than 20 different industry…