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 Seventh Annual Aboriginal People’s Choice Awards, held as a component of the Manito Ahbee Festival, brought together the best of Canadian Indigenous Music in Manitoba last month.
Jacquie Black, manager of the awards held Nov. 1 and Nov. 2 in Winnipeg, said the awards are a true testament to the success and dedication of Indigenous people in the music industry.
“For the artists…
Original People Original Television: The Launching of the Aboriginal Peoples Television Network
Jennifer David
Published By: Debwe Communications Inc.
Pages: 214
Review by Christine McFarlane
“Original People: Original Television,” is a behind-the-scenes look at Aboriginal…
Louis Riel and the Creation of Modern Canada: Mythic Discourse and the Postcolonial State
Jennifer Reid
Published By University of Manitoba Press
Pages: 314
Review by Christine McFarlane
Jennifer Reid’s book, “Louis Riel and the Creation of Modern Canada” gets readers to look at a…
Racialized Policing: Aboriginal People’s Encounters with the Police
By Elizabeth Comack
Fernwood Publishing – Halifax and Winnipeg, 2012
Review by Shari Narine
The most disturbing aspect of Elizabeth Comack’s Racialized Policing: Aboriginal People’s Encounters with the Police is not the first-hand…
Poetic tale of a life of hardship
My Mother Is Now Earth
Mark Anthony Rolo
Borealis Books 2012
Reviewed by Shari Narine
In My Mother Is Now Earth, Mark Anthony Rolo tells the heart-wrenching story of the last three years of his childhood, which coincides with the last three years…
The Amos Key Jr. Institute had the opportunity to present its e-learning model to delegates at the Chiefs of Ontario Education Conference held in Toronto Oct. 24 and Oct. 25. One of the reasons for the conference, said Gord Peters, grand chief of the Association of Iroquois and Allied Indians, was to bring together leaders and people in the education field to share successes.
Audra…
Former National Hockey League player John Chabot has created a non-profit organization aimed at helping Aboriginal youth.
Chabot, who is Algonquin, has launched First Assist Charity. The organization’s goal is to bring Aboriginal youth from remote fly-in communities to a major city.
“We want them to get a feel for the cities,” Chabot said, adding those on trips will visit schools…
Aboriginal partners named
A total of 14 Aboriginal Leadership Partners have been named for the 2015 Pan Am Games, as well as the ensuing Parapan Am Games. Both games will be held in Toronto and surrounding areas. The Parapan Am Games, which feature athletes with physical disabilities, are traditionally held in the same city shortly after the Pan Am Games, which are staged…
Margaret Poitras doesn’t expect the statistics to be released Dec. 1 to be any different than what is already known: too many Aboriginal people are presenting with AIDS before they are even diagnosed with HIV.
“Our people are dying on the streets. They’re walking around palliative,” said Poitras, executive director with All Nations Hope AIDS Network, the only Aboriginal-focused HIV/AIDS…
“I’ve always said that people shouldn’t be ashamed to go get tested,” said Stephen Simon. “Some people are ashamed to admit they have diabetes.”
Simon, a Korean War veteran and recent recipient of the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal, lives on Big Cove First Nation in New Brunswick and describes himself as “an 80-year-old retired old dog.”
In 2002, he lost sight in one…
Justice Murray Sinclair, Manitoba’s first Aboriginal judge and chair of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, gave the keynote address at a Toronto conference to commemorate the entrenchment of section 35 in the Canadian Constitution 30 years ago.
The conference entitled 35@30 was hosted by the Faculty of Law, University of Toronto and held in co-operation with the National Centre…
Artist—Don Amero
Song—Turn These Gray Skies Blue
Album—Heart On My Sleeve
Year—2012
Don Amero has developed quite the reputation as a premium quality Aboriginal performing artist and at this year’s 2012 Aboriginal People’s Choice Music Awards, he accepted his award for Entertainer of the Year by pointing…
WOLF SONGS & FIRE CHATS
We meet a varied assortment of people in our time here. Some come and go almost casually and leave little behind but small pools of recollection. Others walk into our lives boldly, trumpeting great things that maybe shake us to our cores and change things so that our lives are never the same again. Still others arrive elegantly, their energy a smooth…
THE URBANE INDIAN
There is probably no contemporary holiday so full of complex social and political issues for the modern-day First Nations person than Thanksgiving. Mine included. For one thing, it makes me very confused. Like, what exactly is a pilgrim? Is it a group of people who follow a specific branch of Christianity like the Mennonites or Amish or the Elk’s club? Or are they…
Prime Minister Stephen Harper has locked Canada into a deal with China when he signed the Financial Investment Protection Agreement with that country. The agreement had been kept under wraps until leaks from the Conservative camp revealed the Prime Minister would be signing the document during House of Commons business at the beginning of November.
But, once word of it got out, people…