First Nations in Quebec may hold their own independence votes in the event the Parti Québecois wins the April 7 elections and holds another referendum.

Although the Liberals appeared to be in the lead in the final weeks of the campaign, the poll is being watched closely by aboriginal groups concerned about their rights should the province separate from Canada.

Similar concerns arose the last time Quebec sovereignty surfaced with the 1995 referendum – and Innu and Cree communities held their own votes.

There will be no transition period for organizations that use project funding from the Urban Aboriginal Strategies program as it is revamped.

The impact of no gap funding will be devastating, said Christine Martin, co-chair of the Metro Vancouver Urban Aboriginal Executive Council. Clientele will be losing out as community-driven programs close their doors because of lack of funding.
The council is made up of 20 member organizations representing the vast majority of off-reserve, urban Aboriginal people in Metro Vancouver.

The Skidegate Saints have done it again.

And in relatively easy fashion.

The Saints won the boys’ title at the British Columbia Junior All-Native Basketball Tournament, which concluded on March 21 in Kamloops.

This marked the third straight year the Skidegate side had won the provincial crown. A total of 25 teams competed in the boys’ division at the event, which featured players ages 17 and under.
The Saints easily won all five of their contests at the tournament, outscoring their opponents by at least 30 points each time.

Hosts win two titles
    The Six Nations Minor Hockey Association is once again receiving rave reviews for a long-running youth event it hosted. For the second straight year the Six Nations organization hosted the Little Native Hockey League Tournament.

    As was the case last year, in order to accommodate the size of the tournament, the event, more commonly referred to as the Little NHL, was staged in various Mississauga arenas.

The history of Canada is based on a series of misunderstandings as well as understandings, Bob Rae told an audience of mostly law students at the University of Toronto on March 19.

Rae resigned last year from his position as Liberal MP for the Toronto Centre riding to take on the job of Advisor to the Matawa Chiefs Tribal Council regarding the development of an area in The Ring of Fire in northwestern Ontario.

Colonization has interfered with the traditional roles of Indigenous men, Giibwanisi told people gathered on March 5 for a discussion on men’s obligations. The discussion was part of a speaker series titled Community Resurgence, hosted by Ryerson University’s Centre for Indigenous Governance and Ryerson’s Aboriginal Education Council.

Many residential schools were built from brick so artist Dawn Marie Marchand has invited survivors, their descendants and their spouses to draw their stories in the form of a three inch by nine inch piece of brown paper.

“I want to recreate the stories on a wall and I wanted to use a medium that was easily accessible and anybody could mail,” said Marchand of choosing the brick-shape.

The Indigenous Visual Culture Program at Toronto’s OCAD University hosted a talk titled, Wampum: Language and Symbol recently. About 60 people gathered to learn about wampum from historians, curators and artists.

Historian and curator, Rick Hill, Tuscarora from Six Nations of the Grand River Territory, started learning about wampum belts when he worked in a museum in the 1960s.

Teaming up with cancer agency for study

Thousands perished from disease, malnutrition, fire.

Large numbers of children who were sent to residential schools never returned home. In light of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s final national event held at the end of March in Edmonton, this month’s Footprints is dedicated to the memory of those children who died from the harsh conditions they experienced, or perished while trying to escape from them.