It is time to move beyond symbolic gestures and words. It is time for action.

Diane M. Kelly was the first woman elected Grand Chief of the Grand Council of Treaty 3, and if elected as National Chief of the Assembly of First Nations, would be the first woman in that role as well. But gender shouldn’t be the deciding factor, says Kelly.

“We all have gifts (and) not necessarily because you’re a man or a woman. It’s because of your life’s experiences. And that’s what I’m bringing to the table, my life experiences and my work experiences and work ethic,” she said.

Kelly is concentrating on the treaty relationship between Canada and treaty First Nations.

“I’m talking about our sovereignty as Indigenous nations,” Pam Palmater declares enthusiastically, her voice edged with a passion for which the Mi’kmaq lawyer and academic has become renowned.

On May 28, the chair of Ryerson University’s Centre for Indigenous Governance joined the quest for leadership of the Assembly of First Nations. Immediately, the member of New Brunswick’s Eel Bar First Nation was dubbed a “wild card” in the race.

Sovereignty is “fundamental to everything that we are as Indigenous people,” said Palmater.

After 25 years serving as Dene Chief, Bill Erasmus is hoping to expand the legacy of his First Nations leadership by becoming the new National Chief for the Assembly of First Nations.

 “I deal in the truth,” Erasmus, 58, said as an explanation as to why he is running. “People want a particular kind of leadership. I’m prepared to do the work and ensure that our lands are secure and that we’re protecting our sovereignty.”

One-fiftieth of a teaspoon of mercury is all it takes to poison a 20-acre lake.

Decades after Dryden Chemicals dumped 10 tonnes of the neurotoxin into northwest Ontario’s English-Wabigoon River in the 1960s, Aboriginal communities are literally reeling from its effects.

“I get dizzy spells where I fall down,” said Judy Da Silva of Grassy Narrows (Asubpeeschoseewagong) First Nation. “I’m on mercury disability. I use a cane to walk... I used to have fainting spells, too.

Windspeaker: What one quality do you most value in a friend?
Gillian Thomson: The one quality I value most in a friend is genuineness.
Robert Thomson: I always look for honesty in friendship.

W: What is it that really makes you mad?
G.T.: What really makes me mad is when I see someone being treated unfairly.
R.T.: Anytime I see a person take advantage of someone who is vulnerable or defenseless.

W: When are you at your happiest?
G.T.: I am at my happiest when I am creating art and being around loved ones.
R.T.: When I’m with the people I love.

Artist—Armond Duck Chief
Song—Country Groove
Album—Country Groove
Year—2011

Wolf Songs & Fire Chats

We inflated frogs. We were eight years old. We were Ojibway kids trying to navigate the world of foster homes, a white neighborhood, white school, and the callous disregard of us by the 1960s mill town.

The world was cold then. Empty. We spent our days longing for things we vaguely remembered, and the rivers and the bush were the only places we felt like ourselves–or, at least, who we thought we should be.

The Urbane Indian

Most people in Indian country are familiar the Seven Grandfather teachings as presented in Anishnaabe tradition. It’s sort of a guide book for human conduct towards others. All together these teachings include wisdom, love, respect, bravery, honesty, humility and truth—Sort of the ‘greatest hits of human nature.’

A life devoted to healing and higher learning

Morning sun highlights the clustered flower-heads and feathery leaves of the wild yarrow seven-year-old Lillian selects from hundreds of other plants hanging in her grandmother’s back porch. The little girl bursts with pride realizing Miigwas (Little Feather) trusts her to identify the herb on her own, and to help process it into a tonic for stomach disorders.