Media.Knet.Ca

Friday, May 14th, 2004 was a day to remember for some Kasabonika Lake FN high school students from Chief Simeon McKay Memorial Education Centre.  They met with and presented gifts to Minister Rick Bartolucci, his Parliamentary Assistant, Bill Mauro MPP-Thunder Bay/Atikokan, ADM John Gammon, and their Policy Advisors and Assistants.

Minister Bartolucci had a brief meeting with Chief Gordon Anderson, Deputy Chief Eno H. Anderson, Council and Elders in the School Gym on issues of importance to the Kasabonika Lake FN and as they relate to the programs, policies, and objectives of the Ministry of Northern Development & Mines.

The Ministerial entourage looked stunning in their beaded leather vests and medicine necklaces as they departed for Webequie First Nation with additional gifts of dreamcatchers, moccasins, and gauntlets.

A commitment to entrench communication strategies, consultations, and full consideration of a Far North Resource Development Council was achieved, in addition to further visits.

The spring issue of Canada Connects celebrates the innovative work being done across Canada in the field of eHealth. The on-line version of the magazine that is scheduled to be on the news stands in June is now available. The centre spread recognizes the work being done by Keewaytinook Okimakanak in developing telehealth services in the Nishnawbe Aski Nation communities north of Sioux Lookout.

Check out the KO telehealth story on-line and the two KO visionaries who worked to develop these services (Geordi Kakepetum and Orpah McKenzie). The magazine and the KO Telehealth story also features other KO partners in the development of these innovative services (FedNor, Health Canada, NORTH Network, Bell Canada and others).

The Canadian Research Alliance For Community Innovation And Networking (CRACIN) workshop in Montreal is being attended by two Keewaytinook Okimakanak staff members. Click here for the meeting agenda.

Brian Walmark, KO's Special Projects Coordinator, is working with a number of post-secondary partners and organizations to develop the Keewaytinook Okimakanak Research Institute as directed by the Chiefs of Keewaytinook Okimakanak. Click here to view the briefing note describing this new KO initiative.

KO's K-Net Services is working with CRACIN as one of the seven case studies to research community networking in First Nation. Adam Fiser, a PhD graduate student at the University of Toronto is developing his thesis proposal to gather information about the work being completed to support First Nation schools in their efforts to get connected to broadband infrastructure and applications.

Chief Raymond Mason, Keewaywin First Nation and Dan Pellerin, K-Net's Network Manager, are attending Industry Canada's First Nations SchoolNet (FNS) program bi-annual gathering that is taking place in Halifax. These meetings provide an opportunity for the six Regional Management Organizations to meet with Industry Canada's Information Highway Applications Branch (IHAB) team to share stories and develop strategic plans to support First Nation schools across Canada.

Video conferencing connections are in place using KO's video bridge to connect all the members of the FNS team that includes the RMO's across Canada (click here to see the six different RMO hosts supporting all First Nation schools in Canada). Jesse Fiddler, K-Net's Multi-media Manager, was scheduled to attend this conference but weather prevented his attendance in person. He was still able to participate in the meeting and complete his prepared presentation using the video conference facilities. The meeting is being webcast and archived for others to learn about this work.

Meeting agenda follows:

4th FNS National Program Meeting
May 12th, 13th and 14th, 2004
Casino Nova Scotia Hotel, Halifax, Nova Scotia

Lunch speaker: Paul Swinwood (day to be determined)

Keewaytinook Okimakanak K-Net team members travelled to Rainy River First Nation last week to work with their staff in the development of their new community web portal. Click here to see the Rainy River First Nation web portal.

As well, the T1 connection installed as part of the First Nation SchoolNet video conferencing pilot project in their community library, was extended using a DSL connection to the Band Office. Rainy River First Nation is working with K-Net staff to identify strategies to extend their broadband connection to other organizations and community members. Pictures and more information about this work is available at http://firstnationschools.ca

National Chief Phil Fontaine from the Assembly of First Nations tried to get to the Keewaytinook Okimakanak Balmertown office today but the weather would not cooperate. Chief Fontaine and his team got as far as Winnipeg where the KO staff were able to work with the Keewatin Tribal Council's SchoolNet Regional Management Organization to have Chief Fontaine meet with the KO team via video conference. Along with the connections to the KO Balmertown office, the KO Sioux Lookout office, and the Manitoba RMO office, special guests from the Maori KWoR institute, Tom Winitana and Graeme Everton joined us from New Zealand to meet Chief Fontaine and share some of their work with KO.

A series of Briefing Notes on some of the ongoing work at Keewaytinook Okimakanak was presented to Chief Fontaine with the hope that he will work on behalf of Keewaytinook Okimakanak to address some of our issues on the following matters. Click on the topic below to see the PDF version of the briefing note delivered to Chief Fontaine during this video conference meeting:

1. Kuhkenah Broadband Network Briefing Note
2. KO First Nations SchoolNet RMO Briefing Note
3. K-Net SMART Communities Briefing Note
4. KIHS Briefing Note
5. KO Telehealth Briefing Note
6. KO Research Institute Briefing Note
7. KO Health Services Briefing Note
8. KO National Satellite Initiative Briefing Note

One outcome from the meeting was a commitment from Chief Fontaine to complete his visit to Balmertown sometime in the next month.

Jean-Francois Delorme (JF), with the Kativik Regional Government office in Kuujjuaq, arrived at K-Net's office in Sioux Lookout on April 28 and left on May  5. He spent the week working with Dan and Adi on the satellite portion of the Kuhkenah Network. JF and the K-Net team worked together to establish the necessary protocols and procedures for maintaining and supporting our respective partner communities and resources.

Sharing both technical and network development strategies is making it possible for these satellite-served, remote communities in two different regions of Canada (Northern Ontario and Northern Quebec) to share both the hub and network infrastructure as well as the technical expertise required to operate this satellite network. KRG recently was allocated 11mhz of bandwidth on Industry Canada's second public benefit transponder made available by Telesat as part of their agreement for specific orbital spectrum space. Click here to see the news story about this announcement.

The fourteen communities served by the Kativik Regional Government are each served by a C-Band satellite earthstation. They are receive their data connection through the K-Net earth station located in Sioux Lookout. Over the past two years, KRG has been building their network and applications using the K-Net portion of Industry Canada's C-band satellite public benefit resource (see http://smart.knet.ca/satellite for more information about this resource). With the addition of the KRG allocation along with our other partner (Keewatin Tribal Council) in Northern Manitoba, the combined satellite bandwidth resource will be able to be utilized to serve many of the different broadband applications being developed in the communities and these different regions (telehealth, education, justice, administration, etc).

"… Conventional policy evaluation approaches may not capture the reality of life on the ground especially when one takes into account how much time it may take for change in livelihoods to become evident. Surveys, questionnaires and quantitative analysis designed for more homogenous urban and rural communities cannot meaningfully address the nature of change that policy decisions have in these disparate remote communities. This research focuses on developing new tools to enhance the evaluation process in order to provide policy makers with a better understanding of the local impacts of their decisions while simultaneously allowing the communities themselves to become active participants in the policy process by giving them the tools to tell their own stories. …

… As part of the SMART evaluation process, Industry Canada agreed to allow the use of video recordings and short documentary video productions into the evaluation process. New digital video technology allows remote communities, typically overlooked in the policy development process, a medium in which to collectively communicate their experiences with policy makers. …

… Video is a valuable tool for remote communities because it provides a means for contextualized, locally tailored messages in the absence of lobbying influence or access to mainstream media and advocacy. Video also offers a unique way of capturing interim changes in the context of long term policy-driven changes that are in progress yet defy quantification in the short term. For example, a survey may reveal that a certain proportion of households in a community is connected and go on to describe the types of internet applications being used. However, conventional methods fall short in their ability to predict medium and long term changes that will occur as a result of that particular practice. The SMART case in northwestern Ontario took place over three years in which time aspirations and future plans changed dramatically as applications due to connectivity, in virtually every sector of community life, were revealed and explored. Video, with its ability to record and relay contextualized human experiences allows policy makers a more tangible understanding of the real-life impacts of their decisions and initiatives.

… in the KO communities, a more community based, bottom-up approach is being pursued. In addition to the gathering of local stories around the connectivity experience as they relate to such subjects as health, education, economic development and community development, a training component was included so that the capacity to manipulate the medium was left in the community. Workshops in video production were conducted in each community’s e-centre with participation open to any interested community members. In addition, KO provided video cameras and multi-media editing stations to the communities to foster the ongoing production of video material by and about the communities. Communities have already begun producing their own stories and an online video archive site is presently under construction to provide them a global distribution system. …

The research design set forth is inherently constructivist. Key to the constructivist approach is an acknowledgement that no single research question can guide the research without being modified as the researcher uncovers layers of previously hidden reality. The research question ensures that with each learning cycle the abstract conceptualizations contained therein remain within the realm of co-generalization.

Research Question: How does the introduction of ICTs to aboriginal communities empower them to change relationships with policy-makers, other aboriginal communities and each other?

Collectively, the objectives seek to describe the implications of ICTs and video as a tool for interactive policy making. The conditions required for participants (from the community level up to and including policy-makers) to view the use of video, not merely for the delivery of a pre-determined media product, but as a catalyst for community capacity building and interactive policy development will also be explored. The implications of locally directed media on the self-perception of aboriginal communities in relation to the larger dominant culture and policy-makers whose decisions rarely take into account the reality of life in these communities is particularly significant.

Objective 1: Determine the conditions under which of Information Communication Technologies (ICTs), in particular video can be used to develop capacity in aboriginal communities

Objective 2: Identify the processes that aboriginal communities develop and engage in order to produce communication materials to build capacity.

Objective 3: Determine how access to and control of ICTs and new media tools change the self-perception of remote aboriginal communities

Objective 4: Determine how access and control of ICTs and new media tools change relationship between remote aboriginal communities and urban policy makers.

Objective 5: Explore how policy makers identify the significance of new media tools and products to change their relationship with remote aboriginal communities.

The Ontario Native Education Counselling Association
YOUTH ESSAY CONTEST

CRITERIA:

Age 4 – 9 years: Create a poster showing things we can learn about our culture.  Give a brief description as to why we should learn about our culture and the message your poster is trying to project.

Age 10 – 12 Write a one page essay double spaced on how you can be a positive role model to those around you.  Why is it important?

Age 13- 15 Write a one page essay double spaced on someone who has been a positive role model in your life.  Be sure to answer the Who? What? How, and Why.

Age 16 – 18 Write a 2 page essay double spaced about someone who has been a positive role model in your life.  How has this person/persons influenced your life.

Special Needs Write a one page essay about someone who has been a positive role model in your life and how have they influenced your education.

Essays must be submitted double spaced and typed.

LAST DATE FOR SUBMISSIONS:  JUNE 11, 2004

CASH PRIZES OF $100.00 FOR FIRST PLACE IN EACH AGE GROUP

Please send submissions to:  

Essay Contest
Ontario Native Education Counselling Association
38 Reserve Road, Box 220
Naughton, Ontario  P0M 2M0

For more information, contact ONECA at (705) 692-2999 or check out our website at www.oneca.com