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The annual Indian Arts and Crafts Christmas Sale and Show that has been a popular feature in the Edmonton region for some years will not be returning, at least not this year, says co-ordinator Martha Campiou.

Usually held at the convention centre in downtown Edmonton, the event has suffered financially over the past few years and just couldn't come together this time around. Generally, it relies, at least in part, on door admissions and booth fees, but often this is not enough.

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Sometimes people refer to him as Starvin' Marvin. Like so many others who dabble in the profession of arts and crafts, he has had his hungrier moments in the up and down business of art sales.

Marvin Bourque's carving is probably known as second only to the work of master carver Sonny MacDonald. And it is no strange coincidence that both of them hail from Fort Chipewyan, but grew up in Fort Smith, N.W.T.

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It's not often that an art piece not fashioned from canvas, paper or pressed cardboard ever gets selected as the winning entry of an art contest, but that is precisely what happened at this year's annual Peace Hills Trust Annual Art Contest.

In this, its 16th year, judges selected a contemporary entry crafted by Saskatchewan contestant Calvin Sand. The 49-year-old Cree from the Mistawasis First Nation had to admit he was "surprised and overwhelmed" by his good fortune. "I didn't expect to win. I just wanted to show it."

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When tourists travel to southern Alberta next season, they'll get a chance for a true glimpse into the past - and it won't be at a museum or in interpretive centres.

"I've seen tourists looking for something extra when it comes to Indians," said Pat Provost, who, along with wife Jenny Bruised Head, operate Sundance Traditional Tours. "This provides the live stuff where you can see something visual."

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There were times in the last three years when Yvonne Lapatak thought about handing in her books and giving up her dream of becoming a psychologist.

She smiles as she recalls the times when she would look at assignments and wonder if she would be able to find the words needed to write a 3,000 word term paper, or the times when she would wait until her grandchildren were tucked in for the night and then pull a late-night homework session.

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It was an evening about people, successful people, and in particular, about the Aboriginal Soaring Eagles, 17 Community Social Work Program students who graduated from their two-year course through Metis Child and Family Services in Edmonton.

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What was touted as a great day for Mount Royal College's Native students was marked by their absence at the grand opening of the Native Centre on Nov. 4.

Native students were not among the four people who cut the ribbon to officially open the centre and that angered a member of the Native student society, the Four Directions Lodge.

"Of course I'm disappointed," lodge executive Adeline Sweetgrass said.

"We the Native students had a lot to do with the grand opening, but it didn't reflect that."

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Health workers from Aboriginal communities across Canada gathered for a health conference hosted by the Calgary Region 4 Aboriginal Health Council held Oct. 19 to 21.

Inuit from the eastern Arctic, Micmacs from the Maritimes, southern Tutchone from the Yukon and other representatives mixed with local First Nation and Metis participants to share ideas and discuss ways to improve the delivery of health services to Aboriginal people.

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The Aboriginal Multi-Media Society is powering up the north with a new regional radio transmitter that should provide northern residents unfettered access to its radio programming.

Gone will be the dead zones between communities along the south shores of Lesser Slave Lake, said Bert Crowfoot, society CEO, a non-profit group that operates CFWE, The Native Perspective, a radio station heard on the 91.7 FM frequency in the Slave Lake area.

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Maggie Deranger, program assistant for the Aboriginal Educational Centre at Grant MacEwan Community College, said at the centre's open house on Oct. 2 that the resource is for the whole First Nations community, not just Grant MacEwan students.

"We don't want to put any walls up," she said.

The centre tries to balance off the impersonal atmosphere that often is associated with big institutions with many programs and hundreds of students.