The family of Reggie Bushie is no closer to finding the answers surrounding his death. Police recovered the body of the Poplar First Nation youth from the McIntyre River in Thunder Bay on Nov. 1, 2007. He had been attending Dennis Franklin Cromarty High School when he died.

Contemporary artist Sonny Assu has a knack for infusing the politics of modern pop culture with traditional First Nations style, and his latest works are no exception.
In his exhibit entitled ‘Longing,’ Assu, a member of the Laichwiltach First Nation on Vancouver Island, takes a modern look at the meaning of reclamation in the way only a contemporary artist can, by examining Aboriginal West Coast tradition and analyzing where renewable resources and disgarded objects fit in the face of growing big business consumerism.

A scattering of cigarettes is strewn as offerings over the sidewalk concrete in front of the Regent Hotel on Hastings. Candles of all shapes are placed tenderly as memorials amidst photographs of a 50-year-old Native woman, Verna Simard. Flowers are placed to remember the late Vancouver resident who fell to her death on this spot on Sept. 16.

The sidewalk shrine was erected by a close friend of Simard’s within hours of her untimely death, which came almost exactly a year after the similarly suspicious falling death of Ashley Machiskinic from the same hotel.

Artist— Murray Porter
Song—Dog House
Album—Songs Lived & Life Played
Label—Independent

Windspeaker: What one quality do you most value in a friend?
Louis Gong: Integrity.

W: What is it that really makes you mad?
L.G.: Greed

W: When are you at your happiest?
L.G.: I’m happiest when I’m sharing my art and ideas through conversation, speaking gigs and workshops.

W: What one word best describes you when you are at your worst?
L.G.: Indecisive

W: What one person do you most admire and why?
L.G.: Bruce Lee. He was self-made, innovative and courageous.

DEAR AUNTIE

Dear Auntie:

An acquaintance of mine is going around telling everyone she has a fatal illness. She even organized a feast to say goodbye to her friends, but the night before the event she cancelled saying she was too ill to host it. I’ve since learned that her condition is being faked. I’m so mad at this person for playing with my emotions I want to expose her in some dramatic fashion. I know that’s immature, but that’s how I feel. I just don’t know how to calm down.
Signed
Steaming Still

THE URBANE INDIAN

I am going to tell you the obvious. It’s a complex world out there. More specifically, all across this country, in its bureaucracy, in its media, in its politics and in its culture, being Native is becoming more and more complex.
It’s also becoming more departmentalized and segmented.

For example, there is a First Nations’ bank. There is the Aboriginal Peoples Television Network. There is a Native university, and in some places, Native schools for young kids.

Industry has one more First Nation to consult when looking to do work in northern Alberta.

A special ceremony was held Sept. 12 that celebrated the conclusion of years of negotiation that resulted in the creation of the province’s 45th First Nation.

Peerless Trout First Nation was created through the settlement of the Bigstone Cree First Nation specific claim, the largest claim ever concluded in Alberta. The settlement resolved outstanding issues relating to treaty promises dating back to the late 1800s.

A high rate of youth suicide in Pikangikum, a rural Ontario reserve, prompted the province’s Deputy Chief Coroner to investigate and provide recommendations to help the First Nation community address the tragic epidemic.

“I would absolutely call it a crisis. There’s no other way to characterize it,” said Dr. Bert Lauwers, who led the review and wrote the report.

THE TK’EML/PS AND SKEETCHESTN INDIAN