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Established in 1983 to serve the needs of northern Alberta, Windspeaker became a national newspaper on its 10th anniversary in 1993.
Artist—Bob Chartrand
Song—Ditch the Chick
Album—Rebel Blues
Year—2012
Available on iTunes
It may be a Friday night or maybe even a Saturday and you are itching to get out and have a little fun. You enlist your significant other and maybe a few friends to go out to seek that escape through a little music and dance. It may be a community hall or a local bar somewhere…
Windspeaker: What one quality do you most value in a friend?
Donny Parenteau: I value honesty as the most valuable asset to have in a friendship. Without this your friendship becomes nothing more than a lie and I strongly believe the world has enough of this.
W: What is it that really makes you mad?
D.P.: Anything you do that hurts my family. You want to hurt me, fine, I can…
An occupation of the Burns Lake band office in northern B.C. ended dramatically on April 7 when between 30 and 50 RCMP officers stormed the building–some allegedly with firearms drawn–to evict seven protesters holed up inside, including four children, who were demanding the chief’s resignation and an Aboriginal Affairs audit of band finances.
Albert Gerow, chief of the 101-member First…
It was a long six weeks for cast and crew of the Prairie Dog Film + Television production Blackstone, but after waiting almost two years to shoot the third season of the Gemini-award winning production, they were hours well spent.
“Getting to know my character, seeing her grow, working with all the other actors, it makes me feel like this is a big family. I just feel comfortable. This…
Getting Canadians involved in an issue that transcends racial lines is the only way the federal government will move ahead on a call for a National Public Commission of Inquiry into violence against Indigenous women and girls.
“This is an issue that belongs to the broader society,” said Ernie Crey, advisor to the Sto:lo Tribal Council and former social worker. He was speaking to the 400…
Kwakiutl Indian Band has rejected B.C. government attempts to negotiate a “new relationship” with First Nations, saying that talks had failed to respect its right to refuse consent to industrial development on their territories.
Only weeks before the launch of the provincial election campaign, Kwakiutl– located around Port Hardy near the northernmost tip of Vancouver Island–announced…
“I know what it takes for a person to stand up and be alone,” said Jack Frimeth, founder and organizer of the Aboriginal Heritage Festival held annually in Fergus, Ont. Addressing the audience at the Wellington County Museum on April 20, Frimeth said, “We felt that Chief Theresa Spence took that stand and by herself,” Frimeth said.
Inspired by the Idle No More movement, the festival…
Opposition to the Muskrat Falls hydroelectric project in Labrador continues with Innu workers shutting down the construction site alleging racism, two weeks after the arrest of eight Inuit leaders at another protest against the dam.
The latest setback for Crown Corporation Nalcor came at the end of the workday on April 18 when Innu employees blocked other staff from leaving the project…
Hunger striking Indigenous people have gained international headline-grabbing prominence since the birth of the Idle No More movement, thanks to a six-week fast by Attawapaskat’s Chief Theresa Spence and Cross Lake Elder Raymond Robinson that coincided with the movement’s explosion this winter.
The age-old starvation tactic has since been employed by a Downtown Eastside Vancouver…
Wold Songs and Fire Chats
We said goodbye to my sister last week. She’d gone to hospital for a routine eye surgery, had a heart attack, went into a coma and passed away days later when the family decided to remove life support according to her prior wishes.
It was hard and sudden and devastating. There are things in life that leave you with gaps in your being and you spend years…
The Urbane Indian
Last month in Vancouver there was a revival of a famous opera named “The Magic Flute,” written by this guy named Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. You may have heard of him. This is interesting because while opera is normally considered an elite form of musical and theatrical expression, this production was influenced by one of Canada’s most marginalized populations.
…
Father struggles with terrible grief
Alo White of Naotkamegwanning First Nation in Northwestern Ontario enjoyed hearing his son Nathan sing traditional Anishinaabe songs after he was initiated into his community’s Midewin lodge.
“Tatibanhanaqwet, Edward Nathan White, was 23 years old, a non-drinker and he never did drugs,” said Alo. “Right away he wanted to learn the Midewin…
Wolf Songs and Fire Chats
Our tenants want a rose bush. My wife runs a rooming house. It caters to the marginalized, impoverished, mentally challenged, disabled and the just plain lost. There are 13 of them. Their stories present a face of poverty few have seen, known or been touched by. But we have. In the last seven years we have been privileged to know a couple hundred of them.
…The Urbane Indian
I have been writing for a very long time. I have been writing this column for a very long time. And over the years I have received some very interesting responses. Some positive, some negative, and a few puzzling.
Frequently there is humour in what I write about because I find the world to be a very funny and humorous place. Because of this I am commonly…
April 9, 2013
BREAKING NEWS: Grand Elder Raymond ENDED HIS FAST at midnight [April 8, 2013], after 5 days and 15 hours without food or water. He is in good health and is extremely thankful for the incredible outpouring of support through his fast. Grand Elder Raymond will be releasing a statement at 11:30 [April 9, 2013] and will have media…