Raven's Eye

Bellstar and the Osoyoos Indian Band launched the third phase of the South Okanagan’s top rated destination resort—Spirit Ridge Vineyard Resort & Spa located in Osoyoos, BC—with $5 million in sales in the first weekend. The residences at Spirit Ridge is the first development at the resort designed specifically for year-round residential living. Construction is scheduled to start in early…

Simon Fraser University professor Rick Routledge and biologist Alexander Morton have reported that sockeye smolts from Rivers Inlet have tested positive for the European strain of Infectious Salmon Anaemia (ISA ) as identified by Dr. Fred Kibenge of the ISA reference laboratory at the Atlantic Veterinary College in P.E.I. Fish farm protesters said it’s time for the federal department of…

The Tsilhqot’in Nation has called on the Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency and the federal government to reject the re-bid Prosperity mine project. “The company is on record admitting this new option is worse than the one that was rejected last year, and a ... review panel has already agreed with that assessment,” said Chief Joe Alphonse, chair of the Tsilhqot’in National Government,…

The Okanagan Nation is proceeding to court on this question: How did the province get the title and authority it claims to the forested land in the province in the absence of treaty? The answer to this question is urgently needed throughout the province, a press release from the nation states.

Under the province’s forestry legislation, the province requires that a person must obtain…

Wendy Grant-John, the former chief of the Musqueam First Nation, received an honorary degree on Oct. 7 during Simon Fraser University’s Fall Convocation. Grant-John has worked for more than 30 years to improve the lives of Aboriginal people. As chief, she launched the first Aboriginal commercial fishery in Canada and helped the Musqueam achieve two landmark Supreme Court cases that solidified…

Despite being granted standing at the Missing Women Commission of Inquiry, which began Oct. 11 in Vancouver, the Assembly of First Nations announced it would not participate. Instead, the organization is demanding that the issue of missing and murdered women be addressed at the national and international levels.

The inquiry’s mandate is to examine what, if any, mistakes were made by…

Nearly 300 people battled the rain to attend Day One of the Missing and Murdered Women’s Inquiry Oct 11, but instead of filing into Vancouver’s Federal Court building, a crowd gathered in the street in protest of what many say is a flawed inquiry process.

The inquiry is to examine the police investigation of the murders of serial killer Robert “Willie” Pickton.

“I feel like I…

Contemporary artist Sonny Assu has a knack for infusing the politics of modern pop culture with traditional First Nations style, and his latest works are no exception.
In his exhibit entitled ‘Longing,’ Assu, a member of the Laichwiltach First Nation on Vancouver Island, takes a modern look at the meaning of reclamation in the way only a contemporary artist can, by examining Aboriginal…

A scattering of cigarettes is strewn as offerings over the sidewalk concrete in front of the Regent Hotel on Hastings. Candles of all shapes are placed tenderly as memorials amidst photographs of a 50-year-old Native woman, Verna Simard. Flowers are placed to remember the late Vancouver resident who fell to her death on this spot on Sept. 16.

The sidewalk shrine was erected by a close…

New funding for the Gabriel Dumont Institute will provide more training and employment opportunities for Métis.
In June, GDI and its strategic partners announced two new initiatives.

The Aboriginal Apprenticeship Initiative, under the federal Strategic Partnership Fund, will receive $2.4 million through the Skills and Partnership Fund for its new Aboriginal Apprenticeship…

Members of the Heiltsuk First Nation of British Columbia’s north coast gathered at the Simon Fraser University [SFU] campus in Burnaby Aug. 30 to participate in a ceremony that will end in the homecoming of their ancient relatives.

Coastal First Nations chiefs, community members, and representatives from the academic world filled the entrance of the Museum of Archaeology and…

The West Moberly First Nation of northeastern British Columbia is celebrating after the BC court of Appeal suspended a provincially-issued permit allowing a BC coal corporation to conduct mining exploration on its territory.
The precedent-setting court victory, announced May 24, is the first of its kind; confirming that First Nations treaty rights can be a powerful tool in requiring the…

History was made on May 26 when the vast majority of 167 B.C. Aboriginal leaders voted in favour of a resolution framework that promises to open the door to First Nations-controlled healthcare.

Close to 500 people attended the fourth annual Gathering Wisdom for a Shared Journey 2011 Forum on the Tripartite First Nations Health Plan in Richmond May 24 to May 26. Only band chiefs or their…

Tenacity and hard work has paid off for three Aboriginal filmmakers from Vancouver after their films won the honors in a digital short film competition hosted in collaboration with the Aboriginal People’s Television Network [APTN] and Capilano University’s Indigenous Independent Filmmaking Program [IIDF].

Twelve talented film students and past graduates of IIDF competed. Winners were…

On Dec. 2, Indigenous leader Kim Recalma-Clutesi was awarded the 2010 Ecotrust Indigenous Leadership Award for her exceptional conservation efforts that have helped shape, not only British Columbia, but the national Indigenous community as well.

A jury of tribal leaders within Ecotrust’s Native Program Services handed out four awards, each comes with an investment of funds that will go…