First nation leads effort to monitor orca-threatening ship noise
By Sonal Gupta, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Canada’s National Observer Underwater noise is a serious threat to endangered Southern Resident killer whales, as ship and ferry traffic intensifies through some of the busiest waters off Vancouver Island. With ship traffic surging following the expansion of the Trans Mountain pipeline — and set to grow even more following a port expansion at Roberts Bank, south of Vancouver — Indigenous-led efforts are underway to track vessel noise and protect whale habitat, according to government documents obtained by Canada’s National Observer. Snuneywuxw First Nation, whose traditional territory includes the Gulf Islands and key fishing grounds along major shipping routes to Nanaimo and Vancouver, is now in its second year of actively monitoring underwater noise. John White, member of the nation and director of...
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One woman’s gift aims to protect forest land forever
By Sonal Gupta, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Canada’s National Observer In the foothills of Quebec’s Appalachian Mountains, a woman with Métis heritage is working to return a parcel of land to a nearby First Nation, marking a step toward restoring Indigenous stewardship over ancestral territory. Since 2006, Françoise de Montigny-Pelletier has owned the land at the border of Sainte-Perpétue and Tourville in southern Quebec. She bought it to protect its ecosystems as a tribute to her Indigenous heritage and the former owner who protected the land with the same concern for biodiversity. She doesn’t see it as private property. “We don’t own the land. It’s our mother,” said Montigny-Pelletier, who considers herself a guardian of “Mother Earth.” “I am here to protect it.” For almost two decades, the forested land...
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First Nation sues feds, saying they were ripped off in land claim settlement
By Sonal Gupta, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Canada’s National Observer An Indigenous band in BC wants a 2002 land claim settlement overturned and is demanding $150 million in compensation from the federal government. Central to the dispute is the Tsimpsean Indian Reserve No. 2, historically shared between the Lax Kwalaams and the neighbouring Metlakatla Nation. According to the statement of claim, government officials unlawfully divided the reserve in 1888, granting approximately 47,000 acres of its southern portion exclusively to the Metlakatla — without the consent of the Lax Kwalaams. “Our people have lived in the Prince Rupert area since time immemorial,” Garry Reece, mayor of the Lax Kwalaams, stated Monday in a press release announcing the band has filed a court challenge. “Canada’s actions in the late 19th and early...
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First Nations partner with the University of British Columbia to design homes that reflect their cultures, save energy — and resist wildfire, too
By Steph Kwetásel’wet Wood Since wildfires tore through his Yunesit’in community in 2017, Russell Myers Ross has been pursuing a dream: building a fire-resistant house that will survive everything climate change can throw at it. “I sometimes joke that we could make this good enough to have a grandmother stay in here and live through the apocalypse,” Ross says with a laugh. His community, one of six in the Tsilhqot’in Nation, was severely damaged in the 2017 wildfire season. Afterward, Ross, who was elected chief at the time, began envisioning a housing solution. The design includes a white, highly reflective metal roof that deflects heat and is fire-resistant, gravel lining the house and sprinklers facing the walls — using easily accessible technologies for a resilient home that makes sense for...
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Northern Ontario’s EMS crisis, where even the ambulance is dangerous
By Jon Thompson, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Ricochet Roy Cutfeet’s pager flickered an address into the dark. It was the middle of the night, in the middle of the winter in his fly-in hometown of Kitchenuhmaykoosib Inninuwug First Nation, and he was the only volunteer on duty to drive the vehicle they called an “ambulance.” He arrived on the scene to find a woman without a pulse. “I was caught in a puzzle,” he recalls. “I had to ask the daughter to drive so I could do CPR on her mom in the back, who died on the way to the clinic. Since then, nobody ever reached out to me to see if I needed debriefing. These are issues that happen. They just throw you on a bus with no...
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Secwépemc play seeks to answer the question: ‘What do we do to heal our communities?’
By Macarena Mantilla, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, The Wren Editor’s note: As a member of Discourse Community Publishing, The Wren uses quotation marks around the word “school” because the Truth and Reconciliation Commission found residential “schools” were “an education system in name only for much of its existence.” How is a language reclaimed? And what comes after? These are the main questions at the centre of Laura Michel’s Echoes of the Homesick Heart. What began as a research project funded through the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council through the Community University Research Alliance (CURA), Echoes of the Homesick Heart is a verbatim theatre project, a type of documentary theatre created from words of real people. Based on over 40 in-person interviews across the Secwépemc Nation, the story focuses on...
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Portage la Prairie businesses ‘Paint the Town Orange’ for reconciliation
By Renee Lilley, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Portage Graphic Leader For the second consecutive year, storefronts across Portage la Prairie will feature painted orange shirts to honour the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation on Sept. 30. The “Paint the Town Orange” initiative is a partnership between the Portage Community Revitalization Corporation (PCRC) and local Saulteaux/Cree artist Annie Beach from Peguis First Nation, along with the Portage & District Chamber of Commerce. “The idea was to unify the community with this orange T-shirt message,” Beach said. “I think art is something people really enjoy and it’s part of the culture here and people seem to be craving it.” Beach, who has been painting murals since 2017, decorated nearly 20 windows last year. This year, she hopes to double that number....
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Robert Redford remembered for his deep legacy in environmental activism and Native American advocacy
Native communities, will remember his greatest legacy as the founder of Sundance Film Festival, where he launched the Sundance Native Lab — elevating and empowering Indigenous filmmakers, storytellers, and cultural sovereignty for generations. He was also an environmental activist, standing with our Native Americans during Standing Rock and speaking out for the protection of sacred lands and water. His voice carried weight, and he used it for justice. By Hillel Italie NEW YORK (AP) — Lorie Lee Sekayumptewa, a former administrator with the Navajo Nation Film Office, remembers seeing Robert Redford at traditional cultural dances at the Hopi village of Hotevilla in New Mexico. It was more than 30 years ago and he was serving as executive producer of the 1991 release “The Dark Wind,” a drama about Navajo life....
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AFN chiefs warn federal budget cuts will hurt First Nations
By Alessia Passafiume First Nations chiefs are warning Ottawa that any cuts to federal funding for their communities will only make it harder for them to move Ottawa’s major projects agenda forward. Assembly of First Nations National Chief Cindy Woodhouse Nepinak says several outstanding issues in First Nations communities still require federal attention and money, including a lack of infrastructure and clean drinking water. She says that while she wants Prime Minister Mark Carney to prioritize those issues in his upcoming fall budget and in Parliament, she fears they will be sidelined in favour of economic interests. Carney has asked his ministers to find savings in their departments and has said the upcoming fall budget will rein in operational spending while investing more in growing the economy. New Brunswick Regional...
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B.C., federal governments support huge LNG facility, opposed by some FirstNations
-CP-The British Columbia and federal governments have announced their support for a massive LNG export facility floating in waters off the province’s northwest, despite opposition from some First Nations and environmentalists. A B.C. environmental assessment certificate for the Ksi Lisims LNG project that is designed to export Canadian gas to Asia was jointly approved on Monday by B.C. Environment Minister Tamara Davidson and B.C. Energy Minister Adrian Dix. Federal Environment Minister Julie Dabrusin also issued a news release announcing her decision to greenlight the project to move to the next stage of permits and authorization. The project is being developed in partnership between the Nisga’a Nation, Rockies LNG Limited Partnership and Western LNG, although documents show the project’s assets will be constructed, owned and operated by wholly owned subsidiaries of...
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4.2 magnitude earthquake rattled Haida Gwaii, no tsunami expected
A magnitude 4.2 earthquake has occurred 75 kilometres west of the Village of Daajing Giids on Haida Gwaii. British Columbia emergency officials say in a post online that the quake hit on Monday just after 1:45 p.m. An earthquake of that magnitude is considered light and no tsunami was expected. Officials say the quake was lightly felt in Skidegate, a community of about 700 people on Haida Gwaii. Earthquakes Canada says magnitudes of less than 5.4 rarely cause damage. ...
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Sale of portion of NWT rare earths project to American firm raises ‘serious questions,’ says YKDFN
By Eric Bowling, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, NWT News/North A recent sale of nearly half of an Australian firm’s holdings to an American-owned company, including a portion of a major project in the NWT, raises serious questions about First Nations’ rights over resources, says Yellowknives Dene First Nation. Vital Metals Inc., an Australian-owned mining operation, announced on Aug. 24 it was selling 19.5 per cent of its holdings, including the Nechalacho rare earths project in Chief Drygeese territory, to American-owned Strategic Resources LLC for approximately $2.7 million Canadian dollars. A further $3.4 million Canadian is being raised by selling off over 36 million more shares to “accredited U.S. investors” — approximately another 24.5 per cent of the company. In the announcement, Vital Metals says the funds raised will be put...
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Federal transportation investigators to visit site of fatal Manitoba plane crash
By Brittany Hobson Investigators are heading to the site of a plane crash that killed four people in remote northeastern Manitoba over the weekend. The Transportation Safety Board of Canada says investigators should arrive in St. Theresa Point Anisininew Nation by the end of the week to probe the accident that saw a bush plane crash approximately 40 kilometres south of the community while on its way to Makepeace Lake. Two men aged 53 and 49 and two women who were both 50, all from St. Theresa Point, were pronounced dead at the scene in Saturday’s crash. The pilot, a 20-year-old man, suffered serious but non-life-threatening injuries. The Transportation Safety Board says it is in its field phase of the investigation, which means the agency will be gathering information on...
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The Path Forward: Wiikwemkoong and Beyond reclaim life and spirit
By Jacqueline St. Pierre, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, The Manitoulin Expositor TORONTO—Healing is not a destination. It is a river that bends and churns through the landscapes of our lives, carving canyons in memory, flooding and receding with trauma and clarity alike. Rarely linear, healing requires courage, presence, and the willingness to confront the fire within. For Lindsay Trudeau and Roland Pheasant of Wiikwemkoong Unceded Territory, that river was wild and treacherous. Addiction had claimed years of their lives, wrapping its claws around them and refusing to release them. Yet, through love, commitment and community, they found their way back—not alone, but together. At the First Nations Community Wellness Conference, hosted by the Chiefs of Ontario and held in the grand halls of the Fairmont Royal York, Ms. Trudeau and...
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Evacuations of Indigenous communities during wildfires must prioritize keeping families together
By Lily Yumagulova Across Canada, massive fires and hazardous smoke have forced tens of thousands of people to evacuate from northern and remote communities to shelters and hotels in large cities. For many, their homes, businesses, trap lines and the ecosystems that nourish them are at risk of burning down, or already have. With more than 7.6 million hectares burned across Canada in 2025 already, this is more than double the 10-year average of 3.6 million hectares. In August 2025, the Canadian Red Cross announced that the 2025 wildfires response operation was the largest in the organization’s recent history. Indigenous Peoples are disproportionately affected by the negative impacts of climate change and disasters like wildfires and floods. First Nations in Saskatchewan, Alberta and Manitoba are those most often evacuated, with...
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Two LU professors inducted into Royal Society of Canada
By Matt Prokopchuk, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, TBnewswatch.com THUNDER BAY — A pair of professors at Lakehead University have been recognized by the Royal Society of Canada. The historic liberal arts and academia organization will induct Christopher Mushquash and Sarah Olutola at a ceremony in November, according to a media release issued by Lakehead. Mushquash will be inducted as a fellow, while Olutola will be inducted into its College of New Scholars, Artists, and Scientists. Mushquash, a member of Pawgwasheeng, or Pays Plat First Nation, is being recognized for “his remarkable contributions to shaping policy and practice that improve systems of care across the country,” the university’s media release said. “His work integrates traditional knowledge with scientific approaches to ensure care for Indigenous peoples is culturally and contextually appropriate.” “It...
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Chiefs of Ontario developing new First Nations business directory
By Matt Prokopchuk, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, TBnewswatch.com TIMMINS — First Nations-owned businesses are being invited to register for what officials are calling the first Indigenous-led and certified commercial directory in Ontario. The Chiefs of Ontario and the province announced on Thursday that the organization that represents 133 First Nations in Ontario is building a First Nations business directory that officials say will showcase Indigenous-owned businesses, give them better access to public procurement and contracting opportunities and help cut down on what Ontario Regional Chief Abram Benedict called “the growing issue of First Nation identity fraud in business,” according to a media release. “We’ve seen lots of controversy in the last little while around businesses taking opportunities … or contracts that are designed for First Nation businesses when, at the...
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Woodstock Art Gallery raising $30K to buy Indigenous artist’s work
By Brian Williams, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, London Free Press Woodstock Art Gallery is seeking help expanding its permanent collection by launching a fundraiser to acquire the art of an award-winning Canadian artist. The gallery wants to raise $30,000 to add Indigenous artist Shelley Niro’s Borders series – which is on display in the art gallery’s lobby until Jan. 24, 2026 – to its permanent collection, director and curator Alex Hartstone said. “It’s four works and they portray outstretched hands and there’s a lot of symbolic imagery, and they reference wampum belts, which are traditional Indigenous artifacts that record traditions, histories, laws and those sorts of things,” Hartstone said of Borders. “It’s kind of an exploration of relationships and agreements and that can be between individuals or nations or organizations,...
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Pangnirtung grandmother doubtful that Inuktitut lessons will be effective
By William Koblensky Varela, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Nunavut News The biggest concern Luii Qaapik has for her six grandchildren’s education in Pangnirtung is ensuring they are taught in Inuktitut. She thinks Nunavut’s strategy of teaching Inuktitut and English in the same schools will only cause problems in both languages. “You don’t teach Inuktitut in an English-language school. If you want to teach Inuktitut, you have to get an Inuktitut-licensed school like English schools and French schools have a licence,” Qaapik said. Nunavummiut students in kindergarten and Grade 1 will receive a made-in-Nunavut curriculum for the first time this year, according to the Department of Education. Inuktitut and English will be taught together up to Grade 2 next year, with another grade level of the Nunavut curriculum being rolled out...
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Indigenous communities can be ‘Canada’s competitive edge,’ new federal council appointee says
By Matt Prokopchuk, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, TBnewswatch.com BINGWI NEYAASHI ANISHINAABEK — The only Indigenous leader from Ontario on a new council expected to provide input to large-scale national development projects says it’s an opportunity to make a difference. JP Gladu, who is from Bingwi Neyaashi Anishinaabek or Sandpoint First Nation, is one of 11 Indigenous leaders recently named by Prime Minister Mark Carney to the Indigenous Advisory Council of the federal Major Projects Office. The projects office initiative, according to a media release from the Prime Minister’s Office, will “serve as a single point of contact that gets major, transformative projects built, faster.” It was created after the passage of the legislation formerly known as Bill C-5, which aims to fast-track development deemed to be in the “national interest.”...
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