The Flower Report
“The earth laughs in flowers.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882) By Rachel A. Powless Photos by Rachel A. Powless I did not choose to become a photographer 25 years ago but rather by necessity did I pick-up a camera. So often when Carl holds a bird in-hand he will say things like this, “Rachel, would you take a photo of this?” He would point to a specific group of feathers such as the 3 very tiny alula feathers found at the joint of the primary wings. Small pieces of information like this can become a larger part of the “preponderance of evidence”. This can contribute to the id of the bird, sex, and/or age. I worked quickly & efficiently. I soon realized how striking bird feathers can be while holding...
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UNDER THE NORTHERN SKY: Learning In A Dangerous Time
By Xavier Kataquapit www.underthenorthernsky.com An entire new generation of graduates from universities, colleges, secondary schools and elementary schools are moving ahead with their lives all across Canada. This time of the year is very special for First Nations and in particular remote communities. Organized education is a relatively new thing for my people considering that less than a century ago most of my ancestors were only involved in learning about surviving on the land. My generation was one of the first to have a proper, modern education in Attawapiskat although we had to attend secondary school back in the 1990s in cities to the south. My parents believed in education and graduation day was a big deal for everyone. Life is not easy in this strange new pandemic affected world...
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Barn Fire Considered Suspicious
(COUNTY OF BRANT, ON) – On Monday, December 30, 2019, at approximately 1:40 p.m., the Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) County of Brant Detachment and Brant County Fire Department responded to a fire at a Middle Townline Road, County of Brant address. Attending firefighters arrived on scene and were met with a fully engulfed barn fire containing a large quantity of dried tobacco and hemp. The fire was subsequently extinguished and no injuries were reported. The County of Brant OPP Crime Unit along with the Office of the Fire Marshall is continuing to investigate and is seeking assistance from the public. If anyone has any information regarding this incident, they are being asked to contact the OPP at 1-888-310-1122. Anyone with information about this or any incident in the...
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NO:IA from all of us at Turtle Island News
NO:IA from all of us at Turtle Island News...
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“Hey’all! See you at the Boucherie!”
Terrylynn Brant travels the Dish with One Spoon treaty area throughout Canada and the U.S., her longhouse basket in hand, reclaiming indigenous food sovereignty through foraging, gathering and collecting Haudenosaunee seeds. With a Masters in Science and teaching degree she shares her knowledge in workshops and speaking engagements. You can reach her through her Mohawk Seedkeepers facebook page. Photos by T. Brant “Hey’all! See you at the Boucherie!” By Terrylynn Brant T he White Hills Farm was a hive of butchery, pit cooking and eating barbebque as locals converged on their first outdoor “Boucherie” and Mohawk Seedkeeper Gardens were happy invited guests to this local food security event. Hunters, Chefs, Speakers and local families had the opportunity to attend and revitalize an old local tradition of food security. There were...
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Survivor Series Educates Tourists About Residential Schools
By Donna Duric Writer They were just kids. Yet they were forced to live in conditions comparable to a prison, filled with abuse of every kind, leaving a lasting impact on generations of families of all those little ones who attended the “Mush Hole.” The Mush Hole, a nickname for the Mohawk Institute Residential School in Brantford, closed down in 1970 but the heartbreaking stories from the kids who attended are still being told today in an effort to educate the general public about what really went on behind the doors of one of Canada’s most notorious residential schools. The Mohawk Institute, first built in 1828, was one of dozens of government and church-run residential schools that operated across the country in an effort to assimilate Indigenous children into Euro-Christian...
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Six Nations Man Wins Big in Lottery
It was a very Merry Christmas for Six Nations man Randolph Miller, after hitting it big on an instant lottery game. Miller is now $100,000 richer after winning on the lottery game Instant Chill Play Vacay. Instant Chill Play Vacay is available for $5 a play and the top prize is $100,000. Odds of winning any prize are 1 in 3.97. “I played and scanned my ticket,” said Miller, a driver, while at the OLG Prize Centre in Toronto to pick up his cheque. “When it came up a winner, I couldn’t believe it!” The 54-year-old plans to save and invest his windfall. “This win makes me happy,” said Randolph. The winning ticket was purchased at Gateway Newstands on Lynden Road in Brantford....
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2019 Year in Review
January 2nd, 2019 Newly elected mayors of Branford, Kevin Davis, and Brant County, David Bailey, both tell Turtle Island News that re-establishing the relationship with the Six Nations is a priority of theirs. January 9th, 2019 Logan Robert Larouche is the first Six Nations baby of 2019 after being born on January 4th to parents Bryce Larouche and Kalena Rayne Burning. January 16th, 2019 The Day of Action sees the Six Nations Mens’ Fire lead a one-day shutdown of Cockshutt Road in support of B.C.’s Wet’suwet’en while other Haudenosaunee across Ontario hold slowdowns on major highways. January 23rd, 2019 Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is met by Wet’suwet’en supporters who blocked his entry to Brock University for a town hall meeting. January 30th, 2019 The proposed Six Nations Cannabis Control Law...
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Weekly Cartoon
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Facing 2020 with resilency
You know the old saying when times get tough, the tough…well they look to the new year with hope. 2019 has been both a time to celebrate and a tumultuous time for Indigenous people. Indigenous people worldwide celebrated when the United Nations declared 2019 the International Year of Indigenous Languages. Then paused as Canada stalled on bringing the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People (UNDRIP) into law. In November B.C. showed Ottawa how it’s done by becoming the first jurisdiction in Canada to formally enshrine the … UNDRIP into law. In July Prime Minister Trudeau bought a pipeline, in December the British media outlet The Guardian reported the RCMP’s strategy to remove First Nations protesters from Trans- Canada’s $40 billion liquefied natural gas project in January was to...
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Community Members Affected by LifeLabs Hack
Six Nations community members are part of the 15 million customers whose data may have been breached from LifeLabs, a Canadian laboratory testing company. The Elected Council reports that some of the health service departments on the Six Nations partner with LifeLabs for diagnostic testing of patients and so community members information may be affected by the breach. According to the LifeLabs investigation into the incident the information that was breached includes patient names, addresses, birth dates, logins, passwords, health card numbers and lab results. As Canada’s largest community lab, LifeLabs does a variety of testing from diagnostic tests, naturopathic tests and genetics tests. LifeLabs report that the majority of the customers affected were located in B.C. and Ontario with 85,000 customers from 2016 and earlier located in Ontario. In...
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Modern annuity a game-changer for First Nation families
By Sheilla Jones and Sheila North The origin of a potentially groundbreaking step toward meaningful reconciliation between Canada’s first people and settlers can be laid at the feet of Métis leader Louis Riel. Literally. In 1994, Métis activist Jean Allard had lots of time to think after chaining himself to the controversial “tortured” statue of Riel to protest its removal from the grounds of the Manitoba Legislature. As a former Indian Affairs (IA) project manager, who was a member of the legislature in Premier Ed Schreyer’s NDP government, he knew first-hand how ordinary First Nations (FN) people were being crushed under the weight of an enormous Indian Affairs bureaucracy. As Allard sat in chains at the feet of Riel, he fretted about the damage done to communities by the battle...
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Failing ice cellars signal change in Alaska
By Rachel D’Oro THE ASSOCIATED PRESS ANCHORAGE, Alaska – For generations, people in Alaska’s far-north villages have relied on hand-built ice cellars dug deep into the permafrost to age their whale and walrus meat to perfection and keep it cold throughout the year. Scores of the naturally refrigerated food caches lie beneath these largely Inupiat communities, where many rely on hunting and fishing to feed their families. The ice cellars range from small arctic root cellars to spacious, wood-lined chambers, some topped with sheds. Now, a growing number of these underground cellars are being rendered unreliable as global warming and other modern factors force changes to an ancient way of life. Some whaling villages are working to adapt as more cellars, some stocked with tons of subsistence food, turn up...
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Sports 2019 Year in Review
January 9: Wadatawi Bomberry started the scoring in her debut appearance for the Six Nations Lady Snipers. January 16: Six Nations Midget Rep team wins International Silver Stick Championship, becoming the first ever First Nations team to ever win the trophy. January 23: Georgia Swarm lacrosse team shows support for Lyle Thompson by donning a ponytail on the back of their warm up shirts and helmets after racist remarks were made from former Philadelphia Wings broadcaster. January 30: The Six Nations Rebels lacrosse team held their first tryouts of the season under first year coach Dean Hill. February 6: Theo Fleury was inspired by the “Me Too” movement and told his story to a crowd at the Gathering Place on the Grand. February 13: The Credit First Nation Hockey...
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Manitoba Mounties investigating death of man reported missing as homicide
NEEPAWA, Man.- Mounties say they are investigating the homicide of a man who had been reported missing. A body was found Tuesday in the rural municipality of Rosedale, about 200 kilometres northwest of Winnipeg. RCMP say the man has been identified as 32-year-old Cody Mousseau from Sandy Bay First Nation. Mousseau was reported missing on Dec. 8, 2019. Police say it’s believed that he was last seen in Sandy Bay between Nov. 27 and Dec. 1. RCMP say they are investigating the death as a homicide and are working with the Manitoba First Nations Police Service. This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 27, 2019....
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Kelly Fraser, who sang popular Rihanna cover in Inuktitut, dies at 26
Kelly Fraser arrives on the red carpet at the Juno Awards in Vancouver, Sunday, March, 25, 2018. Inuk singer Fraser, whose popular YouTube cover of Rihanna helped inspire a Juno-nominated career of songwriting and activism, has died at 26. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darryl Dyck By David Friend THE CANADIAN PRESS TORONTO- Inuk singer-songwriter Kelly Fraser rose to popularity on YouTube with her cover of Rihanna’s “Diamonds,” but those who knew her say the Juno-nominated musician’s dreams of global fame were equalled by her determination to inspire other Indigenous youth. The independent pop musician, who lived in Winnipeg, died earlier this week at 26, according to friends. The cause of her death has not been released. Fraser was an ardent supporter of the Indigenous music community, and took every opportunity to amplify...
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Secrecy of police board hearing in Thunder Bay, Ont., must be reconsidered
By Colin Perkel THE CANADIAN PRESS TORONTO- A retired judge will have to decide anew whether to keep secret a hearing that will decide if police officers should face disciplinary proceedings for their investigation into the death of an Indigenous man, Ontario’s top court ruled on Friday. The appeal raises important questions about the openness of police board hearings as guaranteed by the charter, the Court of Appeal said in its decision. The case arose in October 2015, when the body of Stacy DeBungee, 41, was found in the McIntyre River in Thunder Bay, Ont. Within hours, the Thunder Bay Police Service said his death was not suspicious and closed its investigation. DeBungee’s brother and the chief of the Rainy River **>First Nations<** complained to the province’s police oversight agency,...
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‘If we don’t, who is?’ Adventurers protect winter playground as climate changes
Professional adventurer Greg Hill skis at Rogers Pass in an undated handout image. Hill was skiing in Pakistan five years ago, when he got caught in an avalanche and broke his leg.As he healed, he reflected on what legacy he would have left behind had he died.Anthony Bonello / THE CANADIAN PRESS THE CANADIAN PRESS BANFF, Alta.- Professional adventurer Greg Hill was skiing in Pakistan five years ago, when he got caught in an avalanche and broke his leg. As he healed, he reflected on what legacy he would have left behind had he died. Hill had climbed hundreds of mountains, skied millions of vertical feet and documented many of his adventures in Canada, South America, Norway and Pakistan. “It was awesome, I was encouraging people to push deeper,” Hill said in...
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Six Nations Community Members Election Concerns Unanswered
By Justin Lethbridge Writer A presentation on the concerns surrounding the 58th General Election was shut down by Six Nations Elected Chief Mark Hill last Tuesday after discussions between community members and the Elected Council grew heated. Concerns with the Election, the Election Code and Chief Electoral Polling Officer were back on the General Council agenda for a third time in the past month. The issue has been moved back twice as council wanted more time for due diligence in order to make a thorough report but Tuesday night that report amounted to moving discussions to a community meeting. “What we have decided on,” Elected Chief Hill said, “is that, again, going back to the community and a committee that we want to strike for the new year to look...
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Jody Wilson Raybould chosen Canada’s newsmaker of the year
By Joan Bryden THE CANADIAN PRESS OTTAWA- The SNC-Lavalin affair cost Justin Trudeau two cabinet ministers, his most trusted aide, the top federal public servant and possibly a second majority mandate; and now the woman at the centre of it all, Jody Wilson-Raybould, is the 2019 Newsmaker of the Year. The former justice minister was the runaway choice of news editors across the country surveyed by The Canadian Press. Prime Minister Trudeau, whose Liberal government was reduced to a minority in the Oct. 21 election, polled a distant second. “Jody Wilson-Raybould made us think about governance and fairness and loyalty and how all of those things play out every day behind the scenes on Parliament Hill,’’ said Toronto Star senior editor Janet Hurley. “She lifted the curtain and let us...
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