Dear Auntie:
It’s that time of year again. I’ve made a resolution to get healthier. I was diagnosed with diabetes and I’ve been trying to exercise and eat better, but I have to admit, I have no will power. The body is willing but the mind is weak. I can’t seem to walk by the dessert table, or take time to get my body moving. Do you have any advice on how to stay on track, even when the pies my granny makes are calling out to me from the kitchen, and I spend all my workday behind a desk?
Signed,
Good Intentions

Artist—Shelley Morningsong
Song—Crazy Johnny
Album—Full Circle

Sometimes a cd is a collection of songs that takes you on a journey. Shelley sings about the spirit and voices of all things natural that could be speaking to us. She asks us to walk with her and in her garden of songs she truly takes you for a musical walk that is both insightful and introspective.

Windspeaker: What one quality do you most value in a friend?
Adam Garnet Jones: Real kindness, which is not the same as niceness.

W: What is it that really makes you mad?
A.G.J.: People ignoring or rejecting the gifts they have been given.

W: When are you at your happiest?
A.G.J.: When I am connecting with something outside myself. Whether I am connecting with words on the page, the people in my life, or the ground beneath my feet, feeling connected lets me know I am alive.

A request from elderly residential school survivors who cannot travel to the national truth-telling event scheduled for mainland BC in September 2013 has prompted the Truth and Reconciliation Commission to take the truth gathering process to Vancouver Island.

“This particular event is being held … because there is a special geographical focus here that … the people on the Island themselves have raised with us. A lot of elderly survivors on the Island can’t get to the event on the mainland. So what we said [was], ‘We’ll come to you,” said TRC Chair Murray Sinclair.

A protocol agreement was signed between the province and an organization representing coastal First Nations on Vancouver Island, and deals with forestry, tourism and clean energy concerns. But while some leaders are applauding the agreement, one chief is considering legal action against British Columbia for its lack of consultation in the negotiation process.

Members of the Gitxan First Nation, disappointed in their band’s cooperation in an oil pipeline deal, have been protesting outside the community treaty office in Hazelton since Dec. 5.

Protesters are demanding reform of the Gitxan Treaty Society constitution to include meaningful community consultation on such initiatives. Further they say they are saddened that the society members have spoken on behalf of the community and its hereditary chiefs in agreeing to accept shares in Enbridge’s controversial Gateway Pipeline Agreement.

Craig McCallum will readily tell people that he was no angel during his teen years.

But now he is hoping that he is inspiring others by living alcohol- and drug-free and playing an elite level of hockey.

McCallum, a 22-year-old Cree who grew up on the Canoe Lake First Nation, is a sophomore forward with the University of Saskatchewan Huskies.

Last year McCallum was chosen as the best male rookie athlete from all of the Huskies’ sports teams - no doubt one of the biggest honours for him since turning his life around.

The Métis Nation flag is flying in front of Regina City Hall. The flag was raised one day before the 126 year commemoration of the hanging of Louis Riel in Regina.

“(The city) honoured Louis Riel and the Métis people by being the first major urban centre in Canada to fly the Métis flag alongside all the others,” said Robert Doucette, president of the Métis  Nation-Saskatchewan. “It was a great day.”

The University of Regina continues to create innovative programming to ensure Aboriginal students and faculty are supported in their post-secondary endeavours.

“The Aboriginal advisory circle offers relevant advice, guides Indigenous curriculum and offers emergency funds and bursaries to Aboriginal students” said Dr. Vianne Timmons, president and vice-chancellor at the university.

The University of Saskatchewan has partnered with a Saskatoon-based Aboriginal organization to seek solutions and draw a link to child welfare and gang violence in the province.

U of S Native Studies Métis researcher Dr. Caroline Tait has joined forces with Str8 Up, an innovative program run through the John Howard Society of Saskatchewan, which helps people leave the gang life.