Alberta News Briefs [October]

New Zealand writer shares film, life story

Acclaimed Maori writer in New Zealand Witi Ihimaera and author of the novel The Whale Rider, which became the highly successful film, was recently part of the Aboriginal Arts and the Visiting Artists Series presented by the Banff Centre. The Whale Rider has been seen in cinemas around the world, won over 40 film awards in more than a dozen countries, and was named one of the best films of the decade. Following the film screening, Ihimaera hosted a conversation about his life, his work, and his novel.

Constitutional challenges withdrawn on mine

The Edmonton Journal reports that the Mikisew Cree withdrew its constitutional challenge of an oil sands mining project Sept. 22 in exchange for an undisclosed sum of money and a confidential “social contract.” The hearing to review Total’s $9-billion Joslyn North Mine project, about 70 km north of Fort McMurray, adjourned on Sept. 21, after the joint federal-provincial panel was told the Mikisew Cree would challenge the project on constitutional grounds. Also withdrawing their challenges were the Athabasca Chipewyan and Fort McKay First Nations. The Oil Sands Environmental Coalition called for an adjournment, saying Total had failed to complete a proper assessment of the effects of all industrial development in the area. The panel ordered Total to provide certain evidence about the cumulative effects of development in the area and the review continued the following week.
    
Sisters in Spirit vigils

Vigils were held the first weekend in October in Edmonton, Calgary, and Lethbridge as well as around the province and the country to mark the violence against Aboriginal women and girls. Statistics reveal that over 580 women have been lost since 1970, more than half of that number since 2000. While the government of Canada announced $10 million worth of funds to address this issue in the March 2010 budget, families and communities are still waiting for justice. Said Native Women’s Association of Canada’s president Jeannette Corbiere Lavell, “While NWAC is pleased that an increase in public awareness of the issue of missing and murdered Aboriginal women is starting to resonate with all Canadians, there is still more that needs to be done.”

Cardinal hosts Peoples Choice Awards

Lorne Cardinal will return as host of the Manito Ahbee Festival’s fifth annual Aboriginal Peoples Choice Music Awards on Nov. 5, at the MTS Centre, in Winnipeg. Cardinal, who hails from Sucker Creek First Nation in northern Alberta, is the former star of the comedy TV show Corner Gas. The Manito Ahbee Festival celebrates and showcases Aboriginal music, art and culture in an event that spans Nov. 3-7.

First Nations delegation in Washington

A delegation of Canadian First Nations leaders were in Washington at the White House on Sept. 20 to talk about environmental concerns that are resulting from oil and gas development. They met with the State Department, the White House Council on Environmental Quality, the Department of the Interior, the Canadian Embassy and key Congressional offices.  The delegation was sponsored by the Alberta-based Pembina Institute and the Natural Resources Defense Council, and included George Poitras, of the Mikisew Cree First Nation, and Francois Paulette of the Smith’s Landing Treaty 8 First Nation in the Northwest Territories. Paulette told the Canadian Press that development impacts life downstream and “the whole way of life of the Indigenous people is disrupted.”

Saddle Lake student earns RBC scholarship
Chennae Lapatak, of Saddle Lake First Nation, was one of 10 youths to win under the 2010 RBC Aboriginal Student Scholarship Awards program. The program provides $4,000 annually, for a maximum of four years, to selected students pursuing a post-secondary education. These funds can be used to offset the costs of tuition, textbooks, supplies and living expenses during the academic year. RBC also considers scholarship recipients who are interested in careers in financial services for summer and post-graduate employment. Launched in 1992, the scholarship program is part of RBC’s overall commitment to support Aboriginal youth at every stage of their education and help build economic self-sufficiency for Aboriginal peoples. To date, $1 million has been awarded to 98 students in Aboriginal communities across Canada. Lapatak is attending school in Edmonton.

ROM to display newly acquired work from Poitras

Four original works by Jane Ash Poitras will be displayed in the Daphne Cockwell Gallery of Canada’s First People in the Royal Ontario Museum until September 2011. Poitras is best known for her mixed-media assemblages, in which she explores the impact of colonialism, both past and present. These paintings, Buffalo Seed (2004), The Extermination (1997), Potato Peeling 101 to Ethnobotanty 101 (2004), and It’s Good For Your Heart (2003) represent part of Poitras’s ongoing investigation of traditional non-Western medicines and the “secrets” of plants, including their scientific importance and spiritual significance to various cultures. Poitras of Cree/Dene descent was born in Fort Chipewyan and graduated from the University of Alberta with degrees in microbiology and printmaking. She also has a Master of Fine Arts in Painting and Sculpture from New York’s Columbia University. “We are pleased to feature these newly acquired works by Jane Ash Poitras in Contemporary Expressions, the dedicated space for contemporary Native artwork in the ROM’s Gallery of Canada: First Peoples. Her vibrant and thought-provoking work adds a powerful contemporary voice to our gallery’s presentation of Canada’s earliest societies,” said Trudy Nicks, ROM’s Senior Curator, Ethnohistory, in a news release.

Victims of violent crimes remembered in march

A Victims of Crime march was held in Fort Macleod on Sept. 10 in recognition of George Steve English. The gathering and march marked one year since the death of English. The march was to bring awareness to violent crimes in the region. English, 51, of Brocket, died as a result of injuries sustained in a fight with another man at a recreational property near Coleman, in the Crowsnest Pass.

Treaty 8 chiefs sign declaration opposing dam

Chiefs from Alberta, British Columbia and the Northwest Territory signed a declaration written on a birchbark scroll and read by Liz Logan, tribal chief and spokesperson for the Treaty 8 First Nations, calling for a halt to plans to build another dam on the Peace River. The declaration stated that the third dam, known as Site C, would further disrupt historic gravesites, wildlife and farmland along the river. “This is not just for us, it’s for everyone in British Columbia,” Logan told those who attended a rally held on the BC Legislature grounds on Sept. 19. “This is our only river flowing north, that we need to protect for future generations.”

Two more communities for youth leadership program

ATCO Electric partnered with the provincial government, committing financial and in-kind support for three years to support an Aboriginal youth leadership skills development program through sport, recreation and art for future leaders in Peerless Lake and Trout Lake. The Alberta Sport, Recreation, Parks and Wildlife Foundation, the Alberta Foundation for the Arts and other program sponsors invested about $350,000 to deliver the program provincially to more than 11,900 young people in eight Alberta communities. In 2010, the program was available in Peerless Lake, Trout Lake, Kikino Métis Settlement, Gift Lake Métis Settlement, Driftpile First Nation, Conklin, Heart Lake First Nation and Edmonton Boyle Street Community. Since 1996, the Alberta’s Future Leaders program has served as a community development initiative to address the needs of Alberta children and youth who live in First Nation and Métis communities. Program components include sporting activities like rock climbing, hiking and canoeing, performing and visual arts, as well as leadership initiatives to build interpersonal development skills such as teamwork, self-esteem and conflict resolution.

Compiled by Shari Narine