Every morning I wake up and, coming from my radio, I hear the latest update on the ongoing goings-on of the Canadian Senate.  I am of two minds on the topic.  First of all, as someone who’s spent about 25 years in Canadian theatre, it’s hard to argue with the theatrical appeal of what’s going on. Not since Pierre Trudeau has Canadian politics actually become so … interesting. And entertaining.   It’s like the movie Wall Street meets Parliament Hill.

“Padding your expenses, for lack of a better term, is good.”

I’ve been around the ceremonial life and the teaching lodges of my people for over 30 years now. It doesn’t seem that long. The very fact of being part of a spiritual community lends time a different quality, one where time passing becomes more like time inhabited, each day, month, year, joined in a stream of vital energy.

As I get older I look back and recognize significant moments in that journey that I will always hold as special. There are a lot of them actually, and I feel blessed.

Games, culture mark Alberta Indigenous Games in St. Albert

Assembly of First Nations Regional Chief Cameron Alexis explains the protocol of carrying the Eagle Staff to the runners before they left on their 13 km run from the site of the last Alberta Indigenous Games in Edmonton to Poundmaker Lodge, in St. Albert.

For the second time since its creation in 2008, the Nexen Chair in Indigenous Leadership at The Banff Centre has been awarded to an Indigenous woman with a passion for advancing Indigenous learning. Dr. Lois Edge takes over from Dr. Cynthia Wesley-Esquimaux, whose work during her four-year term included ground-breaking research led by program director Brian Calliou.

It isn’t Idle No More that convinced Karen Pheasant to seek a position on the Edmonton Public School Board, but Pheasant is convinced that the grassroots movement will get Aboriginal people out in record numbers to cast their votes.

“I’m inspired by the way political movement is going for people that have normally been left out,” she said.

Pheasant is running for trustee for Ward C in the upcoming election. To date, she is one of three contenders and the incumbent is not seeking re-election.

She is billed as the first Aboriginal person to run.

A pilot project that is taking place now between the Kainai First Nation and the Alberta government is aimed at keeping the province’s waters safer.

The program, which involves the inspection of watercraft coming into Alberta, is being undertaken to help prevent the spread of unwanted species in the province’s lakes and rivers.

A Siksika First Nation chef whose Toronto restaurant is receiving overwhelming reviews will kick off the second season of Untamed Gourmet.

“I had received requests for different TV things, but production quality and the sensitivity to the subject matter … and their art really showed through on their first season and it was just something I really wanted to be a part of,” said Aaron Bear Robe, who opened Keriwa Café in Parkdale, a trendy area of Toronto, two years ago.

The Oskapewis walkers chose to walk west to Hinton from Ontario and Manitoba “to honour what treaty says, the land, the water, where the water comes from,” said Edmond Etherington.
The east and Ottawa, he says, are about politics.

“But in reality, are (our Chiefs) doing the right thing? Is it okay to give up to what the government wants us to do? That’s why I choose to walk away from Ottawa. Because I know what Ottawa is all about,” said Etherington, a Cree from Moose Factory First Nation.

The Edmonton Police Service recently dedicated its new tipi as part of the department’s new Aboriginal Policing Strategy.

 “This is something that we have been working on for a long time in a vision that has come to fruition, and I am very pleased and proud of what we are going to accomplish in the future,” said Constable Lisa Wolfe, who serves with EPS’s Aboriginal Community Liaison Committee.