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VANCOUVER-The Vancouver Queer Film Festival picked up an Indigenous film, which was screened on Aug. 18 at Robson Square. This dramatic feature length film uses the memories, dreams, and desires of Johnny Greyeyes' (an Aboriginal lesbian woman) and those of her family to express experiences of addiction, abuse and prison.

The story takes place during Johnny's last year in Kingston, Ont.'s maximum-security prison for women. In essence, the film plays with universal themes: the importance of family, identity and the need to belong, to have a place to call home.

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VANCOUVER-The Vancouver Queer Film Festival picked up an Indigenous film, which was screened on Aug. 18 at Robson Square. This dramatic feature length film uses the memories, dreams, and desires of Johnny Greyeyes' (an Aboriginal lesbian woman) and those of her family to express experiences of addiction, abuse and prison.

The story takes place during Johnny's last year in Kingston, Ont.'s maximum-security prison for women. In essence, the film plays with universal themes: the importance of family, identity and the need to belong, to have a place to call home.

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A campaign designed to help Aboriginal women across British Columbia who are in abusive relationships continues to spread its message that there is hope - and help - for a better life.

The "A Safer Place" campaign was begun four years ago by the Native Courtworkers and Counselling Association of British Columbia. The campaign has recently been updated and expanded. The information booklet previously used with the campaign has been revised and updated, and a poster is now also available.

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A campaign designed to help Aboriginal women across British Columbia who are in abusive relationships continues to spread its message that there is hope - and help - for a better life.

The "A Safer Place" campaign was begun four years ago by the Native Courtworkers and Counselling Association of British Columbia. The campaign has recently been updated and expanded. The information booklet previously used with the campaign has been revised and updated, and a poster is now also available.

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Three of the four European peoples who colonized the New World have produced a mixed-race group of people with the earlier pre-Columbian Indians. The Spanish and Portuguese produced mestizos, the French, the Metis, but the fourth colonizers, the English, did not mingle with Indigenous peoples in such a way as to create a significant number of mixed-race offspring. It is an exception. There is a joke among mestizos and Metis that asks, When did we get here? About nine months after Europeans landed. This is considered an historically correct statement.

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There's a quiet revolution taking place in Aboriginal filmmaking, and Barb Cranmer is busy behind the camera bringing life to history and trying to bridge the cultural gaps between Native and non-Native society.

On November 20, Cranmer's most recent film, T'Lina: The Rendering of Wealth, won best documentary at the American Indian Film Festival held in San Francisco. It is the fourth "best documentary" win for Cranmer and her production team at Nimpkish Wind during the past six years.

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There has been much talk at the higher levels of government about alleviating child poverty. So far all I have heard is talk.

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I don't know if there's a word in any Native language for "insidious" but there should be. Heading into a new century and a new millennium there are a host of words our nations term vital: sovereignty, self government, integration, to name a few. But none are so crucial to our common future as the word "insidious."

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The anniversary of my nephew Matt Underwood's passing was September 6. His life was over so quickly that, as family and friends reflected that day, we recalled details that unfolded like a colorful quilt.

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The old pie-in-the face gag has acquired heightened meaning in an era requiring engaging pictures to accompany the delivery of political messages. Last spring, Attorney General Ujjal Dosanjh became the target of a banana-cream protest for his role in overseeing the biggest police operation in his province's history. "That's for Gustafsen Lake," announced his critics, as the pie creamed across the ambitious politician's surprised face.