Archive - 2003

November 22nd

Digital data being developed to present Fort Severn's traditional territories

K-Net staff meet with Fort Severn staff and resource people in Sioux Lookout to further develop the digital information collected during their trip to their traditional territories. Robert Hunter is putting all the data onto the digital maps for that region so it can shared on-line. Cal Kenny is putting together the video material so it to can be shared on-line. The coordination and support for this work is coming from George Kakekaspan, Fort Severn’s Special Projects Coordinator and Tom Terry of Voyageurs North who are involved in documenting and translating the stories. George is working with Barney Turtle to get the material posted on the Fort Severn web site.

Funding applications are being developed to further this work in partnership with FedNor (Carl Seibel) as well as with Natural Resources, Canada’s Sustainable Communities Initiative.

Teleradiology in KO First Nations; Bell Canada Partnership in Wawatay stories

The November 13 issue of Wawatay News contains three more news stories about the work being completed within the Kuh-ke-nah Network of Smart First Nations demonstration project.

This week's issue of the

Kuh-ke-nah page in Wawatay News include the following articles:
  • Teleradiology will allow patients to stay at home
  • : New digital radiology machines are now installed in Deer Lake and Fort Severn Nursing Stations. Images are now being transferred directly from the Nursing Stations and being read in Sioux Lookout or Thunder Bay or anywhere on the network where a radiologist / doctor is available to interpret the image and make appropriate recommendations to the nurse in the Nursing Station.
  • Partnerships bring benefits to First Nation communities
  • : The K-Net – Bell Canada partnership has contributed to improved connectivity and services for all the communities across Northern Ontario. The investments being made by Bell and FedNor in the construction of broadband infrastructure is supporting the development of new broadband applications enabling socio-economic initiatives in all the First Nations across the region.
  • K-Net Showcase
  • - contains photos from the K-Net photo gallery at
http://photos.knet.ca with images of more of the partners involved in working with K-Net to make the network Industry Canada’s Aboriginal Smart Communities Demonstration project.

Rick Garrick is researching additional stories for future articles. If you have a story that you want to share about this project and the work that is happening in your community to get connected, please send us an e-mail.

Various newspaper articles are being scanned and stored for reference purposes

in this photo gallery.

Lac Seul First Nation telecom technician meets with K-Net

Lac Seul First Nation is working with K-Net to bring a broadband connection to all the different organizations across their territory. Pierre Parsons is coordinating the roll out of these broadband services for the three communities. Pierre has been purchasing, installing and networking the hardware in all the different offices in each of the three communities over the past few months patiently waiting for Expertech and Bell Canada to complete the construction of the fibre optic cable build over to Hudson. From Hudson, a T1 connection is to be installed to the Band office in Frenchman’s Head as part of this project.

On Nov 12, Pierre met with Dan Pellerin at the K-Net offices to discuss various connectivity solutions for reaching Whitefish Bay and Kejick Bay from their new T1 connection located in Frenchman’s Head. Everyone in Lac Seul is preparing for their new broadband connection so new services and applications can be introduced and developed across the First Nation territory.

November 18th

Poplar Hill celebrates the Grand Opening of the new Band Office

Community members from Poplar Hill First Nation are looking forward to the Grand Opening Ceremonies of their new band office on Friday, November 28. This new building replaces the former band office that was destroyed by fire in May 2003.

Everyone is invited to attend this celebration that starts at 1 p.m.

A feast will be held for everyone after the grand opening ceremonies.

For more information contact the band office staff at 807-772-8838.

NAN 8th Annual Arts & Crafts show & sale

Once again, we will have the NAN 8th Annual Christmas Arts and Crafts Show & Sale at Victoriaville Mall Center in Thunder Bay on November 27th - 30th. Participants that are interested, are required to register at the event on November 27th. Registration fee will be $80.00 per participant.

For your information, the Continental Curling Cup Challenge will take place at Fort William Gardens on the same dates.

We, the artisans would like to extend our appreciation and thanks to Nishnawbe-Aski Nation and Wasaya Airways for their in-kind contribution and sponsorship in making this event possible. Meegwetch.

If there are any questions, please call John Ferris at (807) 623-8228 or Toll Free 1-800-465-9952  

November 17th

Poplar Hill elects a new chief and council

Last week, elections for Chief and Council were held in Poplar Hill.

The new chief is Patrick Owen.

The elected council members include Eli Moose, Gary Owen and Martha Moose.

November 15th

Rizzo of Outsiderz going solo with his new band Downlaw

Hello ... it's Rizzo again.

My new band Downlaw is going to turn out great. I'm the singer for Downlaw. The members are Les Coretez (ex-guitarist/outsiderz) to fill on the guitars and Connery Marek (ex- bassist/Closure) will take on the bass tracks.

The Outsiderz's CD is near completion. If you are intrested in buying our Outsiderz's self-released CD just email us at outsidersband@knet.ca or sign our guestbook leaving us your email address at http://outsidersband.myknet.org

Well Peace out - Rizzo

November 13th

Raising The Children - An Aboriginal Parenting program goes on-line

Raising The Children - A Training Program for Aboriginal Parents is now on-line at http://raisingthechildren.knet.ca

The development of this web site was made possible through a partnership between the Sunset Women's Aboriginal Circle (SWAC), K-Net and Lorraine Kenny. Funding support for this project came from the Federal Economic Development Initiative for Northern Ontario (FedNor) project that is supporting K-Net to create a variety of on-line training resources for First Nations.

All the material included on this web site comes directly from the Raising The Children Parenting Manual for Aboriginal parents. The entire first topics from each of the training sessions in now available on-line for parents to review.

An on-line Aboriginal Parenting support group is being facilitated utilizing Keewaytinook Okimakanak's On-line Training Centre located at http://training.knet.ca. All interested parents wishing to join this on-line support group are invited to send Lorraine Kenny an e-mail requesting to become a member of the group.

November 12th

3rd Annual Memorial Hockey Tournament in Pikangikum

Pikangikum's 3rd Annual Memorial Hockey Tournament
will be held December 11-14 / 2003.

OPEN ICE BODY CONTACT.

Entry fee will be $900 plus daily pass fee of $2.00 for all players
(to help cover ice time)

Five local teams.

Open to five outside teams.

Accommodations will be provided.

Individual awards and championship trophy will be awarded.

Sandy Lake Skyhawks defending champions

Contacts:

  • Van Keeper 773 5363 H  773 1039
  • WLyle Keeper 773 5277 H  773 5550 W
  • Kenneth Strang  773 5987
  • James D. Strang  773 5070
  • Andrew Keeper  773 5537

November 7th

K-Net hosts www.isglink.org - the International Support Group

Keewaytinook Okimakanak recently received this thank you message from one of our partners (Ricardo Ramírez) working with us in the development and evaluation of K-Net.

Dear ISG members:

Thanks to the generosity of our friends at KNet in northern Ontario, Canada (www.knet.ca) the ISG website is now hosted at the Knet server. I would like to make sure that the savings we are incurring become an investment for KNet. How this happens is something that I have no doubt will emerge. Just think:

  • ISG is a decentralized organization with members in Peru (Maria and Edith), Hawaii (Hal), the Netherlands (Carine and Annemarie), France (Clive), Kenya (Isaac), Canada (Reg and Ricardo) and the Philippines (Annie and Caloy).
  • What brings us together is innovation and learning to work with local communities and multiple partners. Much of what we have done has shaped the work that Don Richardson and I did with the KNet workshops in Red Lake and Fort Severn back in 1998.
  • We reported on this in the Tune meetings in Denmark and we wrote about it in the Linked Local Learning book (I will send a copy of the book to KNet right away).

Our new website host is Keewaytinook Okimakanak's K-Net Services (www.knet.ca) who are working in partnership with First Nations, the public and the private sectors to develop and sustain a Wide Area Broadband Network. The Kuh-ke-nah Broadband Network in Northern Ontario provides support for band office programs, health and education services in each participating First Nation. The network supports the development of broadband applications that combine video, voice and data services requiring high speed connectivity solutions. The long term objective is to establish local community networks linked across the country to other networks that share and distribute broadband services and programs that benefit the local community. 

One day Maria and Edith in Peru, and Caloy and Annie in the Philippines may find local groups that will want to learn from KNet, and KNet from them. I invite you all to have a look at the KNet website; and KNet to peek at ours.

Thank-you KNet!

Ricardo Ramírez Phd
Chair of ISG
The International Support Group
44 Caledonia St.
Guelph, Ontario N1G 2C9 Canada
tel/fax +1 (519) 824-5519
email: rramirez@uoguelph.ca
www.isglink.org