Three Ojibwe teenagers from Sagkeeng First Nation... took top honors in Canada’s Got Talent in its debut season. Brandon and Dallas Courchene , who are brothers, and Vincent O’Laney were crowned the winners on May 14. Their act comprised of traditional dancing, tap, clogging and hip-hop. They called themselves Sagkeeng’s Finest, and come from a reserve near Fort Alexander, Man. The three are part of a larger group of eight, but the three were the ones who decided to audition for the reality program. The trio auditioned with 12,000 other acts and kept moving up the ranks.

THE URBANE INDIAN

Once more, for the fourteenth time, I heard the call and I answered.

Unless the Harper government comes up with more funding, the downsizing of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission will be felt by Indian residential school survivors.

“We’re going to have less staff and just the same amount of work we’re going to have to do. I’m concerned it will impact survivors,” said Kimberly Murray, executive director with the TRC. “There are high expectations in the survivor community and we have limited resources.”

Robert Doucette is confident that Metis Nation-Saskatchewan members will push their regional representatives hard enough to ensure that an overdue election for a new executive will take place.

“I believe that we will have quorum at the Métis Nation Legislative Assembly (MNLA) because Métis citizens want an election. I believe enough people have been telling their leaders to come to this meeting, to come to the MNLA, let’s get on with business, that’s what’s been happening…. At this point, our leaders are hearing that voice loud and clear,” said Doucette, president of the MN-S.

As residential school survivors represented by a Calgary law firm wait for a judge’s decision, Chief Adjudicator Daniel Ish is trying to put their minds at ease.

“They shouldn’t be panicking …there’s a number of well-meaning parties overseeing this to make sure the right thing gets done,” he said.

A small camp called the Oshkimaadziig Unity Camp has been set up in Awenda Provincial Park at the site of an historical counsel rock.

The organizers of the camp are from communities involved in the Coldwater-Narrows Land Claim Settlement Agreement.

Influencing the world of scholarship

Book Review:
Finding A Way to the Heart: Feminist Writings on Aboriginal and Women’s History in Canada

University of Manitoba Press 2012

Edited by Robin Jarvis Brownlie and Valerie J. Korinek

Reviewed By Christine McFarlane

University of Toronto officials no longer have to wonder about what to do with the glassed-in area in the lobby of their Anthropology Building.

That’s because a 540-foot square room in the lobby now houses a permanent exhibit called Uncovering Our Past: First Nations in Toronto.

Summer is hitting Northwestern Ontario early this year, and tempers have started to heat up and boil over in response to the latest mining project proposal in the Ring of Fire area.

The Cleveland-based mining company Cliffs Natural Resources (CNR) announced a $3.3 billion investment to build a chromite mine and transportation corridor about 540 km northeast of Thunder Bay. As part of that investment, a $1.8 billion processing plant is to be built near Sudbury, which is about 1,000 km southeast of Thunder Bay.

Spencer waits
Aboriginal boxer Mary Spencer has long been considered a gold-medal favourite for Canada when women’s boxing makes its Olympic debut in London this summer. But a shocking first-round loss at this year’s world championships on May 14 in China has left Spencer wondering whether she will even get to participate in the London Olympics.

Spencer, a three-time world champion who is a member of the Cape Croker First Nation, is still hoping to represent Canada in the women’s 75-kilogram division.