Sunchild E-Learning Community is thrilled to be one of three nominations for the Eagle Feather Business Award in this year’s Alberta Business Awards of Distinction.
“We were very excited, especially after we saw the quality of the corporations that we were nominated with. They are all very distinguished companies. So we are very honoured,” said Dr. Martin Sulcher, CEO of the Sunchild E-Learning Community.

The Eagle Feather Business Award is given to a 100 per cent Aboriginal-owned company that excels in its area of expertise.

What is important to today’s youth? What issues are they discussing? What makes them stand up and take notice?
The 12th annual Spirit Seekers Youth Conference will answer some of those questions.

“Acceptance of life” is the theme chosen by the youth advisory committee of 10-12 youth, who planned the conference, which is hosted by the Grande Prairie Friendship Centre in partnership with the Grande Prairie Regional College. GPRC has funded the venue and community sponsors have donated a majority of the funding.

An upcoming 13-hour course at the University of Alberta has students, researchers, and members of the general public excited. Archival Science and Aboriginal Identity, a course in library studies, will examine the relationship between the body of knowledge that is known as archival studies and the preservation of the memory of Aboriginal peoples’ cultural and social identity.

Grab a sandwich, some snacks, a coffee and start meeting new people of different cultures, backgrounds and ways of life.

The Pangaea Café in Lethbridge offered just that opportunity twice last year, with the last gathering held late in November.

One of Canada’s largest oil companies has created an Aboriginal employee network to help connect and retain First Nations, Métis and Inuit staff.

AbNet, Shell Canada’s initiative, is composed of Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal employees who want to learn and strengthen Aboriginal culture in the work place.

A partnership initiated by Jeff Horvath with Outward Bound Canada is aimed at keeping Stoney Nakoda First Nation students in school.

Horvath, an Aboriginal liaison teacher at Canmore Collegiate High School, started the Stoney Adventure Group Experience program at the school three years ago. The partnership with Outward Bound Canada is designed in part to help increase the graduation rates among the Nakoda students at the school.

“The graduation rates for First Nation students are abysmal,” said Horvath, an Ojibway who hails from northern Ontario.

Rene Bourque is an example of how an undrafted player can still make it in the professional ranks and star in the National Hockey League.

The 29-year-old left winger is one of the top offensive players for the NHL’s Calgary Flames.  Bourque, whose father is Métis, is in his third season with the Flames. He spent three years with the Chicago Blackhawks.

Bourque was born in Lac La Biche but the early years of his childhood were spent in Edmonton. Not surprisingly he was a supporter of that city’s NHL squad.

Okotoks RCMP seek help in identifying cultural artifacts

An ancient trail that was once a major thoroughfare for Aboriginal people has been recognized by the Calgary Heritage Authority.

On Jan. 24, the Old North Trail, now know as Spiller Road in south east Calgary and is a major route through the Ramsay area, was recipient of a plaque.

Christina Williamson was the perfect candidate to receive the first Friends of the University of Alberta Museums 25th anniversary Internship on Museum Innovation.
Williamson was chosen because she was “really stellar” and it was evident that she would continue to be involved for years, said Dr. Anne Bissonnette.