First Nations Forward
BC First Nations are leading a waste revolution
B.C. First Nations are leading innovative recycling and zero-waste initiatives, reshaping local waste management and setting a model for sustainable practices across Canada.
'Here We Stand': River journey protests controversial bills
A 20-year-old university student from Attawapiskat First Nation in northern Ontario is putting his summer on hold — and taking a 400-kilometre boat journey to protest against new provincial and federal bills he says threaten his people’s land, culture and way of life.
Buffalo harvest brings tradition and lunch to northern Saskatchewan schools (Copy)
First Nations in northern British Columbia have secured a one-year pause on new mining claims across a vast stretch of their traditional territory, a move Indigenous leaders called “history-making” for Indigenous-led land management.
A year of protection: BC First Nations secure mining pause on ancestral lands
The buffalo harvest project, led by the Meadow Lake Tribal Council and its member First Nations, is changing how a generation thinks about food, tradition and self-sufficiency.
Sharing the fine art of cleaning herring
Sharing traditional skills and knowledge was part of the menu at the recent Island Indigenous Food Gathering near Port Alberni.
Indigenous food gathering nourishes culture and climate resiliency
First Nations from across Vancouver Island are gathering this week to celebrate and strengthen traditional food sovereignty and deepen Indigenous communities' response to climate change and other emergencies.
First Nations uneasy chronic wasting disease will weaken food security
Knowledge keeper and hunter Robin Louie is worried.
Worried his people’s food security, traditional knowledge and culture will suffer yet another hit with the dreaded arrival of chronic wasting disease in their territory in the southern Kootenays.
A coastal First Nation’s Guardians are ‘testing the water’ to prepare for climate change
A coastal First Nation’s Guardian team is gearing up to test the waters to try to limit the impacts of drought in their traditional territories on northeast Vancouver Island.
Economy needs Indigenous people and perspectives
Indigenous communities are leading Canada's clean energy boom, "and doing that with a slanted table," says a First Nations business leader working to build a successful climate economy that incorporates Indigenous Peoples and their world views.
How Canada is failing remote First Nation students in northern Ontario
At the end of spring, Canada’s National Observer published a five-part series on the incredible odds stacked against First Nation students in northern Ontario who must travel hundreds of kilometres away from their families to get a high school education.
‘Revolving door of teachers’ hurts everyone at First Nation schools
Sol Mamakwa, Ontario NDP MPP for Kiiwetinoong, an electoral district spanning the northwestern edge of the province, stands in front of a room full of teachers, parents and students who were probably expecting a speech. He delivers, instead, a speak-through-the-soul conversation that moves between storytelling and political demands.
Bringing education back to the land
Lawrence Wesley Education Centre in remote Cat Lake, a fly-in community 400 kilometres north of Thunder Bay, is a well-equipped school, with new Smart Boards, a new gym, a library and a computer room and a cafeteria large enough for all the students to eat together.
For Cat Lake students, graduation is a small miracle
Jackson Wesley is passionate about basketball. He plays for his high school team in Sioux Lookout, 180 kilometres from home. But it’s March break, and he’s back in Cat Lake First Nation for the week. His mom, Sylvia Wesley, is a kindergarten teacher at Lawrence Wesley Education Centre, so Jackson has a pair of keys to the gym if he wants to steal some practice time.
First Nations schools in Ontario stretched thin by limited resources, piecemeal funding
Last fall, Greg Quachegan took 10 students hunting, an annual tradition at Dennis Franklin Cromarty (DFC) High School in Thunder Bay, Ont. They bagged a moose, and the vice-principal taught his students how to be on the land, hunt, fish and clean the animals.
Indigenous education in Thunder Bay was broken. Now there are signs of hope
You may have heard about the Fallen Feathers, seven students who left their First Nations in the North for high schools in Thunder Bay, Ont., and never returned home.
Z’s coming out: At a two-spirit powwow in Toronto, my niece grapples with identity
My niece Z, her mom Ashley and I watched from our Walmart camping chairs as the tiny tots, dressed in their tiny regalia, toddled around the dance circle chaperoned by moms, dads, aunties and uncles. It was Pride Month in Toronto, and for the day, the Two-Spirited People of the First Nations Powwow had reclaimed a patch of grass from the former Canadian Forces Base in Downsview Park.
Afterthoughts on the Pope’s apology from a last-generation residential school survivor
I watched the livestream of the Pope's apology with a piece of broken brick by my side.
The red clay brick is from my former residential school. I am sure people will wonder why I have it. The reason is simple: it is a reminder of Canada's assimilation policy and how residential schools impacted generations of Indigenous people, including my family.
The complicated relationship between Mi'kmaq and the Catholic church
As I walk off the dock on Mniku, also called Chapel Island, a group of Mi’kmaw kids run by, laughing. The afternoon sun beats down and the breeze off the Bras d’Or Lake is welcome.
The Saint Anne’s pilgrimage to this small island in the Potlotek First Nation in Unama’ki (Cape Breton) is the longest-running continuous mission in Canada.
Canada’s takeover of First Nations finances left a legacy of substandard homes and contaminated water
In 2004, an assessment found about half of the First Nation’s 100 homes were dilapidated and unlivable, mostly due to mold. Today, dozens of homes have been replaced and more construction is planned. The community’s boil-water advisory will soon be officially lifted, ending a 13-year interruption to its water supply.
Beyond the pomp and ceremony, what should we be asking of the Catholic Church?
Pope Francis is in Canada this week to meet with Indigenous Peoples. That’s the big news dominating Canadian and international headlines.
There are slim hopes that the Pope might renounce a couple of centuries-old papal bulls, the foundation for colonization and slavery. But don’t hold your breath.