Woodlands Celebrating the Art of Cornhusk
By Justin Lethbridge Writer Two Haudenosaunee artists and the ancient art form of corn husk are being displayed and honoured at the Woodland Cultural Centre. The exhibit was officially opened at Woodland on Saturday, December 7th with featured artists Elizabeth Doxtator and Frazer Sundowner on hand. Speaking about the exhibit, Curator at the Woodland Cultural Centre Patricia Deadman said that corn husk is one of the most important and ancient materials used by the Haudenosaunee. “This exhibition really acknowledges and celebrates the corn husk as a real and vital raw material for artistic expression…It’s important to recognize the contribution corn husk has had to Canadians and more importantly Indigenous art history in the context of our material culture, functionality, purpose, sustainability and values.” Elizabeth Doxtator is a well known artist...
Log In Register
Royal Chapel of the Mohawks was filled with Christmas music for the annual service
By Justin Lethbridge Writer Her Majesty’s Royal Chapel of the Mohawks was all decorated for the holidays and filled with visitors and music for their annual Christmas Service. Despite having been rescheduled due to inclement weather, the Mohawk Chapel was packed for the rescheduled service on Sunday, December 8th. The traditional Christian service featured the Nine Lessons and Carols. The afternoon service was presided over by the Royal Chaplain for Mohawk Chapel, Reverend Roslyn Elm and featured music by the Counterpoint Trio. In addition St. Paul’s Mohawk Choir did a rendition of Joy to the World sung in Mohawk while Michael Montour did a traditional opening and closing in both English and Mohawk. Mohawk Chapel’s Committee Chair Barry Hill told Turtle Island News that the service is held early so as...
Log In Register
OMSK Mistletoe Market teaching Students Budgeting, Shopping
By Justin Lethbridge Writer The Mistletoe Market at Oliver M. Smith Kawenni:io provided students a chance to shop for their family while learning important lessons about how presents get under the tree Christmas morning. The market ran from December 4th to the 6th with all the students at the school getting a chance to pick out gifts for their family with money they’ve earned. Vice-Principal Wanda Davis told Turtle Island News that she got the idea from a teacher at another school who runs a holiday market and agreed to supply the items for OMSK to do their own. She said that it’s been a great learning experience for the students. “Students are doing chores at home to earn money to shop at our market. They shouldn’t be asking their...
Log In Register
The monsters we create
If ever there was a reason to remove the Six Nations Electoral officer’s “anonymous Six Nations Election Appeals Committee” the arrogance shown in denying Alaina VanEvery’s election appeal is certainly grounds. VanEvery went through a very detailed and thoughtful appeal process outlining her concerns over the recent Six Nations Election process and potential conflicts of interest. Whether anyone agreed with her concerns or not the “anonymous” appeals committee had an obligation as a public office holder to respond in a respectful manner. They didn’t. One would think as protectors of democracy they would guide their behaviour and actions with the highest integrity and base that on merit without any discrimination or bias They certainly should not be flippant. Begging the question does this committee have Code of Conduct Rules? Rules...
Log In Register
Weekly Cartoon
...
Log In Register
SAO Retires Finance, director gives notice: Six Nations Elected Council committees being dropped, new ones created
Six Nations Elected Council’s orientation process is continuing amid the sudden retirement of the SAO and notice served by the Director of Finance. SAO Dayle Bomberry’s retirement took effect last Friday after more than a decade of service. Turtle Island News has also learned the Director of Finance has served notice. In addition the orientation appears to have switched gears to a restructuring of the council. While much of the new Elected Council are holdovers from the last council committees are being dropped and new ones added. An orientation process normally has departments explaining what they do and what they are doing and is held in open sessions. This council closed the doors. This orientation was broken up into two segments, an Internal Department portion and an External Organization portion....
Log In Register
AFN Calls on Quebec Chief to Withdraw Indian Day School Appeal
By Donna Duric Writer The Assembly of First Nations (AFN) has called on a Quebec Chief to withdraw his appeal to the Indian Day School settlement. A court challenge issued on Oct. 31 by Paul-Émile Ottawa, Chief of the Atikamekw Council of Manawan, has halted the day school settlement process, resulting in the AFN passing a unanimous resolution last week calling on Chief Ottawa to withdraw his appeal. On Dec. 5, a resolution was moved by lead plaintiff Margaret Swan at the Assembly of First Nations Special Chiefs Assembly calling on Chief Ottawa to withdraw his appeals. Ottawa’s lawyer, David Schulze (Partner, Dionne Schulze, S.E.N.C.) filed the appeal on Oct. 31. “There is also an earlier appeal that remains outstanding,” Gowling, the law firm representing survivors, told Turtle Island News...
Log In Register
Election code appeals, injunctions cannabis packed SNEC council chamber
Six Nations Elected Council chambers were packed Tuesday night when a local woman presented her case on appeals to the Six Nations Election code. An appeals committee has rejected appeals of Brenda Johnson and Alaina VanEvery (see story page 2) who called for a reset of the election. In addition, Joleen Johnson was scheduled to speak on SNEC injunctions against local people. (Photo by Justin Lethbridge)...
Log In Register
Steelhawks win thanks to Munro
By Josh Giles Sports Writer HAMILTON – It was a back and forth battle for most of the game when the Dundas McCoys visited the Hamilton Steelhawks on Friday night. With the first period starting with five goals alone. Three of them for Dundas and the other couple for Hamilton. But that didn’t stop Hamilton. 50 seconds into the second period, saw Stephen Thorne score his first of three goals on the night. Assisted by David Ling and Six Nations player Cam Sault, they officially tied up the game. And that wasn’t the only action that was seen in the second. With the game tied up, a goal was called by the players but not the referees. The Steelhawks celebrated like they just broke the tie game to put them...
Log In Register
Six Nations domination
By Josh Giles Sports Reporter SIX NATIONS – It was wins all around for Six Nations hockey this weekend. Seeing win after win pile up for nearly every team that played on Saturday and Sunday including two back to back dominating wins for the Atom Rep team, and the Peewee Rep team. The Atom Rep team won their first game of the weekend on Saturday against the Delhi Rockets 5-2 and then again on Sunday when they played the Paris Wolfpack and won 6-2. The Atom team has been very successful this season already winning their tenth game on the year. And coach Travis Anderson told Turtle Island News that the key to them playing so well is, “We come in and have them ready for each game. We get...
Log In Register
Halifax Thunderbirds win first game in team history
By Josh Giles Sports Reporter HALIFAX-Saturday was a big day for the Halifax Thunderbirds and Six Nations lacrosse players alike. The Thunderbirds played their first game of the season at home and came away with their first win in team history, all while doing it in commanding fashion. Winning 12-4, it was an impressive performance for Halifax, but more importantly for team goalie Warren Hill who went 40/44 allowing another expansion team, the New York Riptide to score very little. Hill doesn’t want all the credit to go to him but to his team, as he told Turtle Island News, “The defense really helped me out so I could have a successful game.” But this isn’t just a win for the Thunderbirds, it’s a win for Six Nations Lacrosse. The...
Log In Register
St. John’s volleyball comes back strong against Assumption
By Josh Giles Sports Writer BRANTFORD – Watching St. John’s College Senior Volleyball team play at home against Assumption College School was a game full of competition. It had everything you were looking for in an entertaining game, and more. The first set saw St. John’s take an early lead and bring it to match point. Only for Assumption to come back from a hole and score serve after serve. Unfortunately for the Lions their rally fell short giving the match to St. John’s with a score of 25-21. In the second set Assumption came back with a vengeance and won it 25-20. The third set was a little different with the same result. Both teams went back and forth nearly matching each other until Assumption pulled away late and...
Log In Register
Labrador Indigenous leaders condemn racism on provincial airline flight
ST. JOHN’S, N.L. _ Indigenous leaders in Labrador are condemning an incident on a provincial flight Monday when passengers accused two men of making racist remarks. PAL Airlines says it has banned two passengers from future flights for making what the company calls “hurtful and derogatory remarks” towards people on board a flight from Happy Valley-Goose Bay to St. John’s. Former Labrador MP Peter Penashue posted about the incident on Twitter, saying the two men called an Inuk man a racial slur and mocked an Innu woman for speaking her language. The airline responded the next day, saying it is “deeply troubled” by the remarks and committing to a welcoming environment for all customers, especially Indigenous communities in Labrador. Johannes Lampe, president of the Nunatsiavut Inuit...
Log In Register
Fraser River slide has ‘huge’ impact on community: Interior First Nation
WILLIAMS LAKE, B.C. _ High on the Chilcotin plateau in British Columbia’s Interior, the chief of a local First Nation says the traditional diet of its members is threatened by a landslide more than 150 kilometre away. Tl’etinqox Chief Joe Alphonse, who also represents five other local nations as tribal chairman of the Tsilhqot’in National Government, says Fraser River tributaries once teeming with salmon have shown paltry returns since the Big Bar landslide was discovered in June. “On a good year, you can run across the river on the backs of sockeye, that’s how thick our rivers are. And bright, bright, bright almost fluorescent orange colour, it’s an awesome sight,” he said. Alphonse estimated up to 170,000 sockeye returned to local tributaries this year where the annual...
Log In Register
PEDESTRIAN STRUCK AND KILLED ON HIGHWAY 6 IN JARVIS
(HALDIMAND COUNTY, ON) – The Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) Haldimand County Detachment is investigating a fatal collision involving a pickup truck and a pedestrian at a Highway 6, Jarvis, Haldimand County, Ontario address. On Wednesday December 11, 2019 at 12:34 a.m., OPP, Haldimand County Fire Services and Haldimand County paramedics responded to Highway 6 south of Haldimand Road 55 for a single vehicle collision where a pickup truck had struck a pedestrian. OPP investigation, thus far, determined the pickup truck driven by a 42-year-old male from Haldimand County, was north bound on Highway 6 when it struck a pedestrian. The driver of the pickup truck remained at the scene and attempted life-saving efforts which were unsuccessful. The pedestrian, a 35-year-old male from Haldimand County, suffered life threatening injuries and was...
Log In Register
Contraband tobacco and vehicle seizure in Cornwall: CRTF
On November 20th, 2019, following an investigation under the Excise Act (2001), members of the RCMP Cornwall Detachment stopped a vehicle suspected of transporting contraband tobacco on County Road 31 in South Dundas, Ontario. A search of the vehicle resulted in the seizure of 28,200 cigarettes not stamped in accordance with the Excise Act (2001) and 4,400 cigarettes not stamped in accordance with the Ontario Tobacco Tax Act. The vehicle, a 2007 Toyota Tundra, and a large amount of money were also seized by police. The driver of the vehicle, Jack Graham Durant, 81 years old, from Chesterville, ON, was arrested and charged for Possession of Unstamped Tobacco pursuant to Section 32(1) of the Excise Act (2001). He was released from custody on a Promise to Appear, and is scheduled...
Log In Register
Unfinished hides, residential schools in major Ottawa Indigenous art exhibition
By Teresa Wright THE CANADIAN PRESS OTTAWA _ When you walk through the doors of the National Gallery of Canada and spy children playing on a massive new art installation now gracing the main entrance, it’s clear the gallery’s new Indigenous art exhibition is re-writing the rules. The installation, created by internationally renowned Sami artist and architect Joar Nango from Norway, is a two-storey structure that invites visitors not just to observe its mixed-medium elements of wood and tanned animal skins, but includes a collection of books visitors can pick up and leaf through _ books on activism, colonialism and Indigenous architecture, all from the artist’s personal collection. The piece is one of several in the public spaces of the gallery that were created “in-situ,” shaped...
Log In Register
Lawyer competence includes knowledge of Indigenous Crown history: B.C. law society
By Brenna Owen THE CANADIAN PRESS VANCOUVER _ The Law Society of British Columbia has moved to require Indigenous cultural competency training for all practising lawyers in the province, in response to gaps in legal education that the Truth and Reconciliation Commission identified. “Lawyers and the law created a justice system that discriminates against Indigenous people,” said Law Society president Nancy Merrill, noting that it was illegal for a lawyer to take a retainer from an Indigenous person until the 1960s. “That’s still recent history,” she said. “We need to move forward.” Last week, the law society’s board of governors determined that lawyer competence includes knowledge of the history of Indigenous-Crown relations, the history and legacy of residential schools and specific legislation regarding Indigenous peoples in Canada....
Log In Register
Supreme Court says companies must pay for Grassy Narrows mill site maintenance
OTTAWA- Two companies are on the hook for looking after a mercury-contaminated site near Ontario’s Grassy Narrows First Nation, the Supreme Court of Canada has ruled. The 4-3 decision Friday brought some clarity to a long-running dispute over one element of the legacy of environmental poisoning that has caused significant health problems for many residents. Eight years ago, the Ontario government ordered Weyerhaeuser Co. and a firm that later became Resolute Forest Products to care for a mercury waste-disposal site in Dryden, Ont., where toxic material from a pulp-and-paper mill’s operations entered the English-Wabigoon River system in the 1960s. The order obligated the two companies to repair site erosion, do water testing, file annual reports, prevent any leaks and give the Ontario Environment Ministry $273,063 as financial assurance with respect...
Log In Register
Brantford Police Conducting Shooting Investigation
BRANTFORD, ONT-Brantford Police are continuing to investigate a shooter who fired at a residence late Wednesday night, nearly hitting a sleeping child. Police report that at approximately 11:15 p.m. on December 4th an unknown person fired multiple shots into the front of a residence on Strawberry Lane. While investigating, police found that several rounds penetrated the second story of the residence, entering the bedroom a two-year-old female who was asleep on her bed. One of the bullets narrowly missed hitting the child. As the Major Crimes Unit continue the investigation, they are asking the publics assistance. Anyone with information on the incident or anyone with a surveillance video in the area is asked to contact police. Anyone with information is asked to contact Det. Jason Sinning the Major Crime Unit...
