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The Staff of the Keewaywin Administration, other Band staff members, Niska Lake Economic development Corp., Social Services and the public works employees all took part in day four of the Keewaywin workshop. Les Meekis and Raymond Mason opened up with the opening remarks and introduction of everyone in the workshop. Councillor Silas Kakegamic opened the workshop with the a prayer. The day's agenda was introduced. Ricardo and Helen of Telecom Development group started off the workshop developing charts, spray diagrams and a slide presentation. David Neegan also did a slide presentation on forestry and land use. Helen showed a presentation of how other learning centers are doing in other countries. She showed us slides of Peru and other improvished countries showing how technology has changed their lives. The slides showed what they are doing with ICTs and about it. I was surprised at how similiar their community and our reserve are. For instance the phone. They have a place where they have only one phone and they have to share it and buy time to use the phones. That was almost like Keewaywin when we first started the community. There was only one phone for the whole community. North Spirit had only one phone too, a pay phone which was located outside a building. As you can see we have come a long way and technology has just reached us and is going at an extremely fast rate. Jesse Fiddler meanwhile was doing his presentation on scanning, adobe photoshop features and demonstrations with the grades 7 & 8 class. They discussed different ways to use these programs. There were a lot of Keewaywin staff from different areas of employment who participated in the workshop. Everyone was very impressed with the presentations and demonstrations at the workshop. After all the slide presentation were done, Silas Kakegamic said a prayer to close the workshop for the day.

Thunder Bay - "When you graduate from school it will lead you to finding good jobs, and having a good life", said John George Kakekamic, A board Elder for N. N. E. C. During a visit at the Dennis Franklin Cromarty High School on Wednesday, November 21. Elder John George Kakekamic, who has been working for N. N. E. C. for about 10 years, encouraged the students to stay in school. He also spoke about alcohol. He said, "I don't want you guys (students) to use alcohol. Alcohol builds lots of problems and it can ruin your education." "I want you to be happy; happy to be in school. A lot of times students don't graduate, that is one of the greatest thing you can get when you graduate. It will lead you to finding many good jobs, and having a good life. That is my hope, that you would graduate." said Kakegamic. Mr. Kakegamic who has the knowledge, travels to N. N. E. C. locations like Winnipeg, Ear falls, and Pelican Falls First Nation's High School in Sioux Lookout. He talks to students about how life was in his days and that now a days it has changed. Kakekamic said, "Sometimes I weep, because the students don't make it because of the problems they face. Whenever you go through trouble talk to someone, someone you trust. Don't keep it to your self. In the past students that were in trouble just got sent home. Today, it is different. Your parents and your grandparents expect you to stay in school and to finish your school." Kakekamic ended his speech with, "Now a days students everywhere use computers to learn, to get more Information." The school elder Johnny Tait, from Sachigo Lake, also talked to the students about staying in school, He said, "We're here because we care about the students, We want them to know that we're here to help." Tait, Who has been working with the N. N. E. C. since the school opened last year also said, "I don't want students to drink, because drinking ruins your education." Elder Stephen Kakepetum, of Sandy Lake came to check out the students, to see how they were doing. He spoke a few words then closed off with a prayer and blessed the food that the students had after the gathering.

The Keewaywin school closed for the day so the staff could attend the workshop and contribute to the planning for the use of ICTs for education and training in the community. Lorriane Kakegamic, the Education Director said the opening prayer. Education and training was the topic for the day, with the local Kuh-ke-nah staff and K-net on hand to help with the workshop. The same format that was used for the health department was again used today. Everyone present were asked about their expectations for the community. Questions such as what is good education, how to get there (programs), and how can we measure and document how much technology is being used, were discussed. Everyone offered their input and a lot of information was collected for a spray diagram displaying everyone's suggestions. This information was then used to organize and group common themes together. There were a lot of questions and answers throughout the workshop. The session gave everyone the opportunity to ask questions such as the modems, when will the cable system be hooked up and explanations of why the old computers are so slow in getting information off the web. While the workshop was in progress Jesse Fiddler went to the KiHS room to get his video equipment set up. The high school students were on hand to help with the set up of equipment and actually doing the taping. The students were interviewed on how technology has changed their lives and what they think the future holds for the technology that is being used today in their community. Jesse, Blue and I are making out templates for creating a new web site for the information collected which we will be posting at a later date. It will be a web page for all the communities displaying the findings from the community surveys and the workshops that the Kuh-ke-nah project has been doing and will be doing. See the photos at Photo Gallery

Keewaytinook Okimakanak's Kuh-ke-nah Smart program hosted a community feast for Keewaywin. Our councillor Freddie Kakegamic said the prayer for the feast. The whole community gathered together at the Keewaywin School Gym to participate and join us for the feast. We sat the elders of the community at the head of the table. There was a lot of food served, thanks to the volunteer services of the church, businesses and community, who pooled all their efforts to make the feast a success. I was on hand to take photographs. The feast was fun and there was much laughter throughout the feast. Everyone chipped in to help clean up the gym after the feast. There was a lot of food left over and a lot of people were happy to take home a huge doggie bag. The kids were having fun with the demonstration of the camera which was set up. They were having a ball looking at themselves on the television screen. The community of Keewaywin would like to thank the Northern Chiefs Kuh-Ke-Nah Smart Program for throwing this feast together. See the pictures at Photo Gallery