Raven's Eye

A partnership has been forged between two B.C. First Nations that could see them benefit from future joint development projects destined within their overlapping territories.

The economic-based protocol agreement, signed Sept. 26, will provide the Sts’ailes [Chehalis band] and the X’xtsa [Douglas First Nation] with ensured certainty and stability when it comes to economic development…

Candles flickered brightly as stories of loss and remembrance were shared among the 80 people that gathered in Vancouver to pay tribute to lost Aboriginal women Oct. 4.

The community candlelight vigil, held in East Vancouver’s Crab Park, was one of many events held across Canada, marking the country’s National Day of Remembrance for missing and murdered Indigenous women. The vigil was…

Simon Fraser University celebrated the launch of it’s new Executive MBA in Aboriginal Business and Leadership program at a†party in Vancouver on Sept. 20. It is the first such program in North America and provides all the rigeurs of it’s executive MBA program but with the Aboriginal worldview layered on top of that knowledge. The first cohort includes 28 students, and the dean of the program…

Aboriginal business leaders came together for a Tsleil-Waututh Nation Leadership Forum featuring Startup Canada that provided an opportunity to talk about Aboriginal economic development and entrepreneurship. The Sept. 19 forum was the only one of 130 affiliated forums held across Canada co-hosted by a First Nation. It featured a roster of speakers that included Tewanee Joseph, CEO of Tewanee…

Gitxsan Hereditary Chiefs are concerned about a draft agreement
in principle between the province of BC and the Kitselas First Nation. The offer contains land that is part of Gitxsan traditional territory, they say. And it’s being done without proper consultation or accommodation of the affected Simgiigyet (chiefs). “We are quite surprised and shocked to see our lands are part of this…

First Nations on BC’s North and Central Coast have declared a ban on the trophy bear hunt in their traditional territories. The trophy bear hunt is an issue that has been brewing in First Nations communities for several years, said Kitasoo/Xaixais First Nation Chief Doug Neasloss. “Despite years of effort by the Coastal First Nations to find a resolution to this issue with the province this…

Richard Peter’s illustrious international wheelchair basketball career is now over.

And three simple words confirmed this.

“I am retired,” said Peter, who had been a member of the Canadian men’s wheelchair basketball squad since 1994.

The 40-year-old Vancouver resident, who is a member of British Columbia’s Cowichan Tribes, couldn’t have asked for a better way to finish…

The Haisla First Nation has signed a Liquefied Natural Gas [LNG] framework agreement with British Columbia that could see the band benefit financially, provide jobs for members and help fast-track a major LNG facility near Kitimat.

The agreement allows the Haisla First Nation to either lease or purchase 700 hectares of land on the Douglas Channel and work with the natural gas industry…

When many young people his age are pursuing higher education, new Tsawwassen First Nation Chief Bryce Williams is leading his nation.
The role is undoubtedly demanding for even the most seasoned politician, but for Williams, who is just 23 and now holds the workings of B.C.’s first urban treaty in his hands, things seem exceptionally weighty.

Williams defeated the community’s long-…

The Coastal First Nations unequivocally supports the
NDP’s plan in British Columbia to establish a “made in BC” Northern Gateway Project review process, said executive director Art Sterritt. “First Nations and all British Columbians have been waiting for the Liberal government to provide leadership on this issue and they have steadfastly failed at every turn,” he said.
   
NDP…

Since the 1970's, pollution in Cowichan Bay on Vancouver
Island has caused a ban on the shellfish harvest. But with efforts from government agencies, forest companies, conservation groups and First Nations like the Cowichan Tribes, a shellfish harvest could be a reality by 2020. “Those clams are the canary in the coal mine,” said Chief Harvey Alphonse.

“When we can eat them again…

A Gitxsan land claims negotiator is in favour of the plan by media mogul David Black to build a refinery in Kitimat for the crude that Enbridge plans to pipe from the Alberta tar sands. This would mean that refined products like gas, diesel and kerosene would be exported on supertankers along BC’s coast, instead of the raw bitumen that is at the heart of Enbridge’s Northern Gateway pipeline…

A legal showdown over open-net fish farming in B.C. is looming with Kwicksutaineuk/Ah-Kwa-Mish First Nation (KAFN) announcing it will fight for its right to launch a class action lawsuit at the Supreme Court of Canada.
After B.C.’s Court of Appeal ruled on May 3 that Indian Act Bands are forbidden from launching class-action proceedings on behalf of “Aboriginal collectives”– siding with…

This October in Erfurt, Germany, judges from around the world will see what Aboriginal cuisine looks like. Four years from now, they will taste it.

The 2012 World Culinary Olympics is the second step in a three-step, 10-year plan formulated by Chef Ben Genaille to bring Aboriginal cuisine to the fore.

The journey began in 2007 when Genaille’s five-member Aboriginal culinary team…

Joan Jack is confident that another class action launched in federal court will only strengthen the position of day scholars and day school students as they seek recognition and compensation for the abuse they suffered in federally-funded schools.

Jack’s law firm has been acting on behalf of day scholars and day school students since filing the McLean Day School Class Action in federal…