Ponoka Outreach School staff, students and family members were treated to a traditional Cree feast on Oct. 23 at the Jim Omeasoo Cultural Centre.  Community Elders performed a traditional prayer ceremony to seek blessings for the students and their families as well as the school staff to ensure another successful year at the Outreach. Following the prayers, everyone enjoyed a great feast followed by the traditional presentation gifts for every person in attendance, known as a “giveaway.”

Weaving together traditional Aboriginal teachings and conventional HIV/AIDS educational materials, the Tipi of Courage educates young people to deliver messages about prevention to their communities through presentations and artistic expressions at community events, powwows and educational institutions.

The newly created cadets program on the Sunchild and O’Chiese reserves is facing a major stumbling block.

The program, a partnership between the Rocky Mountain House RCMP and the two southern reserves, is modelled after the successful program in Hobbema.

In operation for only eight months, the Sunchild O’Chiese program was attracting an average of 33 youth each week.

“The interest from the youth is extremely high, so this was a positive start,” said program organizer Lanny Gellner.

The Kipohtakaw Education Centre on the Alexander First Nation is an exciting place to be these days. The students planted 25 gardens in earth boxes throughout the school early in November to participate in a two-year study by the community and the University of Alberta which will explore the state of children’s health and encourage them to eat more nutritious foods.

It’s not every day a teenager can explain the ins and outs of a computer program. Rarer yet, that a girl in her last year of high school gets the chance to design her own interactive virtual environment, complete with scents, that has the potential to be used in patient rehabilitation.  But Ashley Brown, a 17-year-old Métis student from Elnora, did just that.

Thailand’s state oil company’s recent purchase of 40 per cent minority shares in Calgary-based Statoil Canada’s Kai Kos Deh Seh oil sands project near Fort McMurray brings a new Asian investor to the Alberta oil sands. PTT Exploration and Production Co. paid $2.28 billion in a deal set to close early in the new year. Foreign investment in the oil sands, such as the Thai government’s, and Aboriginal partnerships was one of the discussions at Alberta 2011: A Bright Future for Aboriginal Business, a day-long forum hosted by the Canada Council for Aboriginal Business on Nov. 25, 2010.

Carrie and Darrell Langevin, owners of the small business Mother Earth Essentials grabbed onto a life changing opportunity by stepping into a world of dragons.

Earlier this year, the Cree Métis couple from the county of Lac St. Anne decided it was worth a shot to bring their Aboriginal-based, 100 per cent natural ingredient bath product line to the CBC hit show Dragons’ Den, which gives entrepreneurs a chance to grow within the business industry.

Showcasing larger business ventures at the Calgary Chamber of Commerce in October presented a golden opportunity for the Piikani Nation, said Kirby Smith, resource development manager.

“Not having adequate exposure points for the local community is a bit of a barrier,” said Smith. “More could be said about people’s experiences, that is, the human capacity for small business, trades, services, crafts and tourism.”

Work of Métis Nation logo designer featured

Alberta cities gather to look at homelessness
The Seven Cities of Alberta hosted the Road Home Conference on Homelessness, Nov. 15 -17 in Edmonton. The conference featured two and a half days of sessions from leading experts and practitioners in the areas of homelessness and related services, including a half-day session about a national forum on homelessness. Keynote speakers included Mark Horvath, Founder of InvisiblePeople.TV, David Stroh and John McGah, “A Systems Approach to Ending Homelessness,” and Calvin Helin, author of The Economic Dependency Trap.