Welcome to AMMSA.COM, the news archive website for our family of Indigenous news publications.
Established in 1983 to serve the needs of northern Alberta, Windspeaker became a national newspaper on its 10th anniversary in 1993.
The Assembly of First Nations is commending police in Winnipeg on the handling of the brutal sexual assault of 16-year-old Rinelle Harper of Garden Hill First Nation. Regional Chief for Alberta, Cameron Alexis, offered his thoughts and prayers to the girl and her family. Alexis leads the AFN’s work in addressing and ending violence against Indigenous women and girls. “Your strength at this…
Test results published by Indian Affairs Canada shows First Nations students on reserves in Ontario, Manitoba, Atlantic Canada and Alberta are struggling with reading, writing and math. In Ontario, only 21 per cent of boys and 32 per cent of girls are meeting requirements in reading and writing. In Alberta, 28 per cent of boys and 36 per cent of girls are meeting the standard. In Ontario, 18…
Grand Council Chief Patrick Madahbee has heaped praise on the Durham Regional Police, saying he is impressed with the respect shown during a dig for three murdered boys at a farm north of Toronto in Anishinabek Nation territory.
“Detective Sgt. Mitch Martin, Major Crime Unit – Homicide, and his team at the Durham Regional Police handled this site dig in a very respectful way,” said…
First Nations boycott Sun News Media
The Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs, Southern Chiefs Organization and Manitoba Keewatinowi Okimakanak joined forces to boycott Sun News Media and companies who use the outlet for advertisement. The First Nations organizations contend that articles within the Winnipeg Sun continue “to provide false information that feed into the…
We Are Born with the Songs Inside Us
By Katherine Palmer Gordon
(Published by Harbour Publishing)
Review by Shari Narine
Recent health developments surrounding former Vancouver Canucks’ hockey player Gino Odjick is a clear indication that he is a man, who has broken through the racial…
Medicine Walk
Richard Wagamese
(Published by McClelland and Stewart.)
Review by Shari Narine
Set with the backdrop of the BC wilderness, author Richard Wagamese intricately weaves the hardship of the physical journey with the emotional journey as estranged father and son travel a rocky…
Ghost Detective
Zachary Muswagon
(Published by Eschia Books Inc.)
Review by Shari Narine
Ghost Detective is an engaging blend of supernatural and whodunit wrapped around life on the reserve. It could easily have remained a mystery novel with a twist, but author Zachary Muswagon makes it…
Thirty teachers from the Ottawa-Carleton District School Board stood beside the National Aboriginal Veterans Monument on the edge of Confederation Park half a dozen blocks from Parliament Hill in the capital’s downtown core.
They were listening to Jaime Koebel, a thirty-something Métis artist and educator from Lac la Biche, Alta, explain the significance of the statue’s human and animal…
Pre-eminent Canadian philosopher John Ralston Saul has written on almost every topic, from the nature of ethics to the dangers of modern reason. He’s even been dubbed by TIME magazine a “prophet.”
Nonetheless, the 67-year-old essayist waited nearly two years after the explosion of the Idle No More movement to release his book on the Indigenous rights movement, and what he sees as its…
Scholarship honours Winnipeg’s “cigarette poet”
Though he passed away in 2005, three years after publishing city treaty–his unabashed manifesto about colonialism–Manitoba’s Marvin Francis continues to influence award-winning writers like Katherena Vermette.
“Francis’s city treaty was the first book that made me say ‘I am going to do this too’,” said the winner…
A young Métis woman from Edmonton has been able to Kash her hockey skills into a free education.
And now Heather Kashman, a student/athlete at the University of New Hampshire, is hoping to one day take her talents overseas.
Kashman is in her fourth year at the New Hampshire school. Though athletes are only allowed to play four seasons in the NCAA ranks, the 21-year-old will still…
A local Edmonton artist has found a provocative way to make a statement with one of her latest creations. Erin Marie Konsmo has been creating beaded condoms as a way to help Indigenous youth reclaim their right to sexuality and sexual health awareness.
“Condoms, in the way they’ve been presented in Indigenous communities, are about fear, stopping youth pregnancy, and shame,” said Konsmo…
Pioneer inducted into Hall of Fame
A former First Nations soccer star has been inducted into the Canadian Soccer Hall of Fame.
Harry Manson was inducted posthumously into the hall of fame via the Pioneer category. Induction ceremonies were held Nov. 9 in Vaughan, Ont. The Canadian Soccer Hall of Fame is housed and operated in Vaughan by the Ontario Soccer…
Study on gangs sheds light on prevention
University of British Columbia counselling psychology professor Alanaise Goodwill, a member of Manitoba’s Sandy Bay Ojibway First Nation, has conducted a study of the Aboriginal gangs that are prevalent in Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba as part of her PhD. She interviewed 10 gang members, including a relative, in Saskatchewan…
Members of the Sandy Lake First Nation gathered at the Youth Centre on the evening of Nov. 13 for the opening of a two-day presentation on the role of jury members and an explanation of how coroner inquests are conducted.
The workshop was put together by a team from the Nishnawabe Aski Nation, including NAN former deputy grand chief Terry Waboose, Sam Achneepinescum, Julian Falconer,…