Forensic audit not about casting blame, but addressing concerns, says committee chair
By Shari Narine, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter The Assembly of First Nations has moved one step closer to conducting a possible 10-year forensic audit. Chiefs on the second day of the AFN’s annual general assembly in Halifax July 12 voted in favour of an emergency resolution titled “Review of the past 10 years of Assembly of First Nations/National Indian Brotherhood audits’’. It allows the Chiefs Committee on Charter Renewal to begin the work to prove that an independent audit of the advocacy organization is required. Setting a scope for such an audit became necessary, said committee chair Khelsilem, because of a “lot of accusations, innuendo, different kinds of conversations’’ around the financial matters of the AFN. Before being ousted as national chief on June 28, RoseAnne Archibald had called for...
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Six Nations Elected Council administration plan updated
By Lynda Powless Editor A plan, almost four years in the making, detailing changes to band administrative services is coming together with current and future projects aimed at closing the gaps in services on Six Nations. Darren Jamieson, CEO of Six Nations Elected Council (SNEC) updated SNEC at its General Finance meeting Monday (July 17th). Jamieson has made the updated plan his priority for the past almost four years of the current council’s term. He says it shows changes to what SNEC considered community priorities like restructuring staff and departments to “optimize responsiveness” as well as movements in housing, infrastructure and more. His report included a 10-year succession plan and financial plan. Jamieson plans to pass the plan on to the community at this council’s first General Assembly. It will...
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Rain doesn’t dampen spirits at 96th annual Border Crossing
By Lisa Eisse Writer NIAGARA FALLS ONT – Not even hate speech or rain could stop the 96th annual Jay Treaty Border Crossing celebrations Saturday (July 16) marking Indigenous rights to cross the international border freely. The annual event began with a parade across the Rainbow Bridge from Niagara Falls NY to Niagara Falls, Ont., and moved northwards. The border crossing is organized annually by the Indian Defense League of America (IDLA) in commemoration of the Jay Treaty of 1794 marking Indigenous rights to continue to cross the border uninhibited. Not even incidents of hate speech prevented parade participants from making their way across the bridge. Event organizer and IDLA president Shirley Squire told Turtle Island News there were a few people who made hateful comments as the parade participants walked...
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The Feather Report – Black & White and Red All Over
Black & White and Red All Over Photos by Carl Pascoe & Rachel A. Powless By Rachel A. Powless Feather Reporter When Carl & I began our journey to become bird banders we studied, absorbed, and shared our knowledge as much as we could about our feathered friends. We were quickly informed about three birds that could slice through our skin with razor-like swiftness. The Northern Cardinal is a year-round local bird. The Common Grackle is considered a partial migrator spending winter throughout the southern US then migrates north as early as March. Enter the Rose-breasted Grosbeak. This songbird is a Neo-tropical species who spends winters in southern Mexico, the Caribbean, Central America & parts of northern South America. He has a voice like a Vienna Choir School Boy. Ornithologists...
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Find the women!
It all comes down to one question. What if it was your mother? Across the country residents, politicians, Indigenous communities are all calling for the same thing. Search Winnipeg’s landfill sites! The bodies of three Indigenous women, all victims of an alleged serial killer, are believed to be buried in Winnipeg’s Prairie Green Landfill and Brady landfill after the partial remains of another missing Indigenous woman Rebecca Contois were found in June at the Brady landfill. Winnipeg Police said they believe the remains of three more missing Indigenous women Morgan Harris and Marcedes Myran, also believed to have been the victims of an alleged serial killer, and an unidentified woman, now named Buffalo Woman by Indigenous leaders, are in Winnipeg’s Prairie Green Landfill. For months the argument has continued on...
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Six Nations Fall Fair to get $70,000 injection
Six Nations’ 154th annual Fall Fair got a boost to help run the much loved fair amid skyrocketing inflation. The Six Nations Agricultural Society (SNAG) asked Six Nations Elected Council (SNEC) for $60,000 in June and were told the finance department would look into it. The fair board returned to SNEC’s General Finance Committee meeting on July 17 to reiterate their needs, including 24-hour security and to help fund the midway, which was projected to cost more than $100,000. SNEC agreed to fund $70,000 from the Ontario First Nation Limited Partnership to help the fair run smoothly. “Due to the price increases this year, everything has gone sky high, but we’ve secured the midway rides and the balance is to be paid,” she said. “I think if you notice it...
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PHD student looking at First Nations autism programs
Six Nations may help Indigenous families nationwide deliver culturally appropriate autism programming. Grant Bruno, a parent of two autistic boys and a member of Nipisihkopahk (Samson Cree Nation), and a PhD student at the University of Alberta is studying autism within First Nations communities in Alberta and wants to expand his study to Six Nations. He came to Six Nations Elected Council’s (SNEC) General Council meeting on June 27 seeking approval of his application to the Ethics Committee to work with Child and Family Services, families and children who have autism. “Currently there is a severe lack of research on autism and Indigenous people in Canada,” he said. “I’ve been working with families and really seeing what’s happening, it’s seen as gifted in my community and I’m sure it’s the...
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Six Nations well represented at North American Indigenous Games
By Sam Laskaris Writer Dozens of Six Nations athletes are among those chasing some hardware at this year’s North American Indigenous Games (NAIG). In a news release the Six Nations communications department sent out it was revealed that a total of 49 local athletes are participating in the Games, which began this past Friday and continue until July 23. About 5,000 athletes, coach and team staff are taking part in the Games, which are primarily being held in the Nova Scotia capital of Halifax. Millbrook First Nation and Dartmouth are the two others centres that will be hosting some of the action. A total of 16 sports will be contested at the Games. Six Nations chief Mark B. Hill is thrilled to the local contingent is a rather large one....
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Sam Laskaris – BEHIND THE ACTION – Six Nations Rivermen
By Sam Laskaris Writer That time of the year that all athletes live to play for has arrived for the Six Nations Rivermen. Yes, the playoffs are here. The local Senior B men’s lacrosse squad played its final regular season contest of its 2023 campaign this past Friday. The Rivermen were downed 11-9 in overtime by the visiting Brooklin Merchants in a match staged at the Six Nations Sports and Cultural Memorial Centre. Six Nations ended up with an 8-6-2 record, presumably good for fourth place in the standings of its six-team Ontario Series Lacrosse (OSL) loop. We say presumably because ever since the OSL regular season concluded on the weekend, a lot has been going on behind the scenes. None of the four OSL playoff-bound clubs had announced their...
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Cultural sharing key part of North American Indigenous Games as sacred fire lit
By Michael Tutton The Canadian Press HALIFAX — Organizers of the North American Indigenous Games ignited a sacred fire on Saturday, saying the rekindling of First Nations culture is at the heart of the sports competition. “We set the goal at these games to have 50 per cent culture and 50 per cent sport, so we’re infusing cultural aspects into all aspects of the games themselves,” said games president George (Tex) Marshall in an interview after the ceremony. Recommended reads for you: Cultural sharing key part of North American Indigenous Games as sacred fire lit North American Indigenous Games officially open in Halifax as prime minister attends The 2023 version of the games is taking place at venues in Halifax, referred to as Kjipuktuk, along with events at Millbook First...
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Mixed results for Six Nations junior lacrosse squads
By Sam Laskaris Writer Six Nations’ three junior lacrosse teams had varying playoff results in the past week. The Six Nations Rebels, the local Junior B club, had the most success. That’s because the Rebels, who had finished with a perfect 20-0-0 regular season mark, managed to win their second round of the post-season. The Six Nations side downed the host Guelph Regals 10-7 on Sunday. With that victory the Rebels managed to capture their best-of-five Western Conference semi-final series in four games. The Rebels will now square off against the St. Catharines Athletics in a best-of-five conference final series, expected to commence in the next couple of days. Meanwhile, the Six Nations Arrows, a Junior A team, had their 2023 campaign come to an end on Monday when they...
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Growing number of youth are experiencing `eco anxiety’; experts say despair can be turned into meaningful action
By Rachel Morgan Local Journalism Initiative Reporter THE POINTER As graduating president of her high school’s environment club, Anita Wong knows a lot about individual acts to promote sustainability. Throughout her four years participating with the club, the Mississauga teen has helped make important changes at her school. The group has held workshops on upcycling, set up compostable cutlery for all school events and most recently opened a thrift store for a circular micro-economy. But while Wong leads such efforts, she knows the actions of youth won’t have large-scale impact unless governments and businesses move away from the fossil fuel industry. The constant nagging concern_which can turn into a prevailing fear that more and more young people are weighed down by_is hard for many older generations to understand. Those born...
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Shipping frenzy threatens Indigenous food security
Matteo Cimellaro Local Journalism Initiative Reporter Arctic shipping and the noise and environmental pollution left in its wake are driving narwhals and other animals farther away from those who depend on them. Lisa Koperqualuk points to the Inuit community of Mittimatalik (Pond Inlet), a northern Baffin Island hamlet with a population of around 1,500, as an example of how shipping has affected Inuit Nunangat, the Inuit homeland stretching through Russia, Alaska, Canada and Greenland. Over the past decade, the number of ships has increased in Mittimatalik’s waters. The increase of ships includes shipping vessels transporting iron from the Mary River Mine on Baffin Island 160 kilometres south of the community, as well as cruise and cargo ships, carrying both tourists and supplies to the North. It’s caused narwhals to veer...
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Canada’s Indigenous women forcibly sterilized decades after other rich countries stopped
By Maria Cheng THE ASSOCIATED PRESS TORONTO (AP)- Decades after many other rich countries stopped forcibly sterilizing Indigenous women, numerous activists, doctors, politicians and at least five class-action lawsuits allege the practice has not ended in Canada. A Senate report last year concluded “this horrific practice is not confined to the past, but clearly is continuing today.” In May, a doctor was penalized for forcibly sterilizing an Indigenous woman in 2019. Indigenous leaders say the country has yet to fully reckon with its troubled colonial past, or put a stop to a decades-long practice that is considered genocide. There are no solid estimates on how many women are being sterilized against their will, but Indigenous experts say they regularly hear complaints about it. Sen. Yvonne Boyer, whose office is collecting...
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AFN opens finances, as calls for reinstatement fail
AFN controversy ends no vote to reinstate RoseAnne Archibald HALIFAX -Former Assembly of First Nations (AFN) Chief RoseAnne Archibald is out. After debate held up the AFN meeting for almost two hours during its opening Tuesday morning attempts to seek re-instatement of the former National Chief failed when a resolution to reinstate her didn’t make it. Archibald is attending the meetings virtually and spoke again criticizing the process and calling her firing a coup. Before the gathering got underway, the organization announced it was sharing the past decade’s worth of financial statements, which it said “confirm the absence of any financial concerns.’’ The dramatic vote to remove RoseAnne Archibald as the first female leader of the largest First Nations advocacy organization in Canada “was not taken lightly,’’ the AFN’s new...
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Walking, riding, dancing in show of support at annual Ride4Pride Six Nations
By Lisa Iesse Writer SIX NATIONS OF THE GRAND – Decked in a spectrum of bright colours, rainbow waves of cyclists, strollers, walkers and skateboarders swept through Six NationsSaturday, (July 8) marking the fourth annual Ride4Pride. The Ride4Pride took route starting at about 10 am in Veterans Park and headed west towards Seneca Road, “completing all 4 directions” of the community, Si Nations SN Outreach announced on their Facebook site. The park was decorated with Pride flags, Haudenosaunee Confederacy flags, and flag designs fusing a celebrated Haudenosaunee sovereignty together with 2S & LGBTQ+ Pride. The rainbowed space of the park also featured a selfie station, and a colouring table. The ride celebrates 2S & LGBTQ+ resilience and inclusion in Six Nations. “This event is important to let community know that we...
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Mississauga Nation visits United Kingdom and his Royal Highness King Charles III
By Lynda Powless Editor LONDON, ENGLAND- The Mississaugas Nation in Ontario sent a delegation of Chiefs and representatives to the United Kingdom last week. It’s the first Mississaugas Nation delegation to meet with United Kingdom (UK) officials since the 1860’s. The delegation included Mississaugas First Nation Chief Bob Chiblow, Credit First Nation Chief Stacey Laforme, Chad Cowie from Hiawatha and Councillor Steve Toms from Curve Lake. They met with officials including Ralph Goodale, High Commissioner for Canada in the UK and toured Saint James Palace where they presented a wampum for his Royal Highness King Charles III on behalf of the Mississauga of the Credit and met with Cannon Paul Wright at the UK Chapel royal who hosted a reception in their honour. The delegation caught up with His Royal...
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Consultant to look at how to engage community
A long-time contentious issue between the Six Nations community and its elected council is how the community’s voice is heard and suggestions implemented. Now a plan is forming to tackle the issue head on. Tabitha Curley, a local consultant is leading the Community Engagement Standards (CES) project with the help of the CES Working Group and has come up with a Community Engagement Standards Guide for SNEC to run a pilot project with. Curley presented the guide to SNEC at its Political Liaison Committee meeting on June 26, but will continue to finalize the guide and continue engagement activities until the end of August 2023. Curley is asking for SNEC employees, councillors and departments to participate in community engagement events and support documentation circulation until then. A large part of...
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Mississaugas of Credit First Nation build birch bark canoes
By Lisa Iesse Writer MISSISSAUGAS OF THE CREDIT – The Mississaugas of the Credit First Nation (MCFN) are harvesting traditional knowledges of the lands, waters and stars with the launch of two community-built Anishinaabek birch bark canoes. The canoe build began on July 3rd at the Fall Harvest Grounds at 659 New Credit Road. where community members found themselves building through heat waves complete with thunderstorms and even a funnel cloud or two around, with only a tent as a shelter. On Monday (July 10) with the sun shining brightly, the Anishinaabek birch bark canoes, heavy with love and labour, carrying generations of knowledge, moved across the cool sparkling waters of a local creek. The build was led by MCFN Knowledge Keeper Mark Sault and Darren Lentz. The two men, who...
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