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First Nations movement gathering momentum

The hunger strikes by Attawapiskat Chief Theresa Spence and Cross Lake Elder Raymond Robinson and the Idle No More movement are speaking to the same issue: the federal government must fulfill the promise of treaty and inherent rights for First Nations.

The Idle No More movement continues in Edmonton on Dec. 21, 2013. The Edmonton Rally is to coincide with other rallies and events planned throughout Canada (as well as parts of the United States) in an effort to draw attention to the plight of Canada's Indigenous peoples their treaty rights and the relationship with the Harper government.

More photos will be added as they come in...

Though their event is still 19 months away, officials with the 2014 North American Indigenous Games (NAIG) are working full steam ahead.

Regina was awarded the 2014 NAIG in May of 2011. The host society has completed many recent steps as the games preparations heat up.

Regina officials have a goal in mind: to make this the best NAIG ever.

“We’re going to try,” said Glen Pratt, the host society’s chief executive officer. “We’ve adopted a theme called Raising The Bar. We want to make sure the games are done a little better each time.”

Hockey equipment drive
Thanks in large part to a Junior A hockey coach, Aboriginal youth in a northern Ontario community received some much needed equipment.

Alex Welker, an assistant coach with the Ontario Junior Hockey League’s Whitby Fury, spearheaded an equipment drive for the Sandy Lake First Nation in early October.

Welker’s son Alex is a first-year teacher in the northern Ontario community. The younger Welker told his father the First Nation has a decent arena but not all youth had the equipment to play hockey.

Cellist Cris Derksen might just have become the second Aboriginal in space.

And while she might not have literally travelled off the planet–as Chickasaw astronaut John Herrington did a decade ago–the electronically savvy, classically-trained instrumentalist was nominated for a 2012 Aboriginal Peoples Choice Music Award (APCMA) for her outer space-themed video ‘Pow Wow Wow,’ created by filmmaker Lisa Jackson.

Juno-winning musician and producer Alida Kinnie Starr is set to release her new album in mid-January, following an intensive Indiegogo fundraising campaign to independently fund ‘Kiss It’.
The 42-year-old’s work has been described by the Globe and Mail as “raw feral talent,” and she confesses to having some rather unusual feral talents herself.

Hook Up
Lorimer Press
Written By Kim Firmston
151 pages
Book Review
By Christine McFarlane

“Hook Up” is a young teenage fiction book that takes readers on a journey with Cody Manywounds, a First Nations teenager from the Tsuu T’ina Nation who is trying to find his place in the world.
In the past, Manywounds had gotten into trouble with two of his best friends Silas and Jarrod, and as a result of that trouble, the police and social services became involved.

In 10 years, the small log cabin by Slant Lake–just off-reserve at Asubpeeschoseewagong (Grassy Narrows) First Nation in northwest Ontario–has been home to hundreds, from anti-clearcutting community members to non-Native environmental allies and warriors of other Indigenous nations.
On Dec. 2, the sacred fire by the Slant Lake blockade was re-lit, the one-room cabin warmed, and stories of a decade of Canada’s longest forestry blockade told once again as community members marked the occasion.

Edmonton Rally Dec. 21, 2012

**FEATURING**
DR. SHARON VENNE,
DANIKA LITTLECHILD
AARON PAQUETTE

**RESPECT MOTHER EARTH & CEREMONIES - PIPE PRESENT**

Therefore, NO alcohol, drugs, under influence, or littering permitted

6:00 AM SACRED POINT ONE – WATER CEREMONY
(Northside of North Saskatchewan River - protocol
in effect)

10:00 AM Gather At Kinsmen Park
*Prepare for March
*Drop off Food & Beverage Donations

The Chiefs of Ontario held a press conference in Toronto during their Special Assembly on Nov. 29, 2012. Gordon Peters, grand chief of the Association of Iroquois and Allied Indians, the Education portfolio holder with the Chiefs of Ontario, wanted to set the record straight about the First Nations rejection of the proposed federal legislation on education.