Talking Stick, a Vancouver festival showcasing Aboriginal art, writing and performance, will celebrate its 20th anniversary this year. It runs in various venues around the city, and will run from Feb. 19 to March 3.

The festival was started through Full Circle performance group in 1992, a group that aims to provide opportunities for Aboriginal artists working in different mediums.

“Full Circle has taken 20 years to get this far, and it’s been a hard 20 years, quite frankly,” said Margo Kane, artistic managing director of Full Circle.

Court cases continue for 10 protesters after controversy over logging on B.C.’s Sunshine Coast escalated to an injunction and arrests on Dec. 7.

The protesters–including 79-year-old shÌsh·lh nation elder Xwu’p’a’lich (Barb Higgins), who was one of those arrested–argue that logging by the Sunshine Coast Community Forest (SCCF) threatens a thriving ecosystem, and they want an investigation into the SCCF’s forestry practices.

A First Nations group will sell carbon offsets from the Great Bear Rainforest to fuel local economic development.  Under the plan, reports the Globe and Mail, revenue from the carbon offsets from trees that absorb carbon would be split between Coastal First Nations and the province, said coastal nations spokesperson Art Sterritt . “It is part of a plan that we have been putting together over the last dozen years.” The rainforest comprises about six million hectares of land from Alaska to the tip of Vancouver Island.

A revenue-sharing agreement has been reached by the government of BC and four Ktunaxa Nation communities. The agreement is the fourth Economic and Community Development Agreement (ECDA) in the province and fulfils the B.C. government’s commitment to reach 10 new non-treaty agreements under the BC Jobs Plan by 2015. The ECDA will enable the Ktunaxa Nation, comprised of the four communities of St. Mary’s, Tobacco Plains, Lower Kootenay and Akisq’nuk First Nation, to share revenues from new coal mine projects in the Elk Valley.

The Semiahmoo First Nation has given notice that it plans to take court action against the City of Surrey or B.C. Lottery Corp. if a gaming licence is approved for a proposed $100-million casino resort in south Surrey. Semiahmoo band Councillor Joanne Charles said the nation was not properly consulted on the project and faces an economic loss, because it too has thoughts of building a hotel, conference centre and casino on its land near the U.S. border. “We may not be able to have that option because this one will be located right there,” Charles told the Vancouver Sun.

More than 1,000 people protested against the controversial Enbridge Northern Gateway project as its public hearings moved to Vancouver on Jan. 14, the largest anti-pipeline demonstration since the 4,000-strong “Defend Our Coast” protests in Victoria last October.

Rank Comix

February 2013

By Adam Martin

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Saskatchewan Premier Brad Wall is rethinking his government’s engagement with First Nations. The premier said there could be change in the air, and Wall is considering less facilitation not more, and more direct action in such areas as job training. “What’s missing is not necessarily more facilitation or more roundtables with FSIN or chiefs,” said Wall. “In fact, you might see us moving away from those kinds of things.” But Federation of Saskatchewan Indian Nations Grand Chief Perry Bellegarde said any plan to extinguish rights, marginalize or exclude First Nations was a relic of the past.

Batchewana First Nation is working towards creating a First Nations wind farm partnership with Calgary company BluEarth Renewables. The groups have just completed the renewable energy approval application for the 60-megaWatt Bow Lake Wind Project and if all goes well construction on the first phase of the wind farm could begin this year. Batchewana Chief Dean Sayers said the community will sell the energy into the power grid and will use revenues for education, housing, infrastructure, healthcare, as well as language and culture preservation.

The Saskatoon Police Service said they cannot let unsubstantiated claims of “starlight tours” stand unchallenged or uninvestigated. The service is calling on the man who leveled an allegation against, them to come forward. He claimed that he had recently been taken on one of the infamous tours, driven outside the city and forced to walk home in freezing temperatures.