Media.Knet.Ca

Centre for Indigenous Theatre
Presents the world premiere of
GEGWAH
Written by Alanis King

Sioux Lookout, Ontario – In an unprecedented collaboration, The Sioux Lookout Anti-Racism Committee, Kwayaciiwin Education Resource Centre, Queen Elizabeth District High School and the Sioux Hudson Entertainment Series have joined forces to bring a most extraordinary play to Sioux Lookout. Alanis King’s new work Gegwah will be presented in Sioux Lookout, Thursday, May 17 at 7:30, at Queen Elizabeth District High School. Admision is "Pay what you can", suggested donation of $5. The play will be presented to students on Friday, May 18 at 9 AM at the high school as an activity in its annual Native Awareness Week.
 
The Centre for Indigenous Theatre is touring Gegwah across Ontario in April and May.  It is being performed by CIT’s professional acting students and supported by an award winning production team. Gegwah will be presented in Toronto, Peterborough, Wikwemikong, Sault Ste Marie, Cape Croker, Kettle Point, Ottawa and Sioux Lookout.
 
Set on the shores of Manitoulin Island in the 1600’s, the story of Gegwah follows seven dispossessed characters, a young band of Odawas who are faced with the onslaught of first contact, specifically the bible and the fur trade.  The story focuses on the emotional impact of colonization through the eyes of these characters as they deal with a rapidly changing landscape. The principal characters are two sisters, who are abandoned by their band as their land is set on fire. They seek solace and guidance from Nokomis (grandmother) and the many animate spirits around them, who feed them with stories and songs to give them strength.
 
This piece is performed entirely in Anishnabemowin, specifically the Odawa dialect that is true to the region in which the story is set and very similar to Ojibway. Audience members will be provided with a synopsis of the story, however our experience through the workshop of this piece indicates that the movement choreographed by Alejandro Roncerio (director / choreographer / dramaturge), combined with the production design, will make it accessible to non-speakers of the language.

A graduate of the National Theatre School, Alanis King is a playwright with numerous credits to her name including, Lovechild, Artshow, Heartdwellers, Manitoulin Incident, Tommy Prince Story, If Jesus Met Nanabush, Storyteller and Step by Step. Ms. King is excited about the presentation of this work, “I gladly accepted the offer from [Artistic Director] Rose Stella to be CIT’s Playwright in Residence, it’s a wonderful chance for a playwright to work on a new play and have students develop and produce it with a director.”

Based in Toronto, The Centre for Indigenous Theatre offers post-secondary performing arts training to people of Indigenous ancestry. The purpose of the program is to develop contemporary performance art from a distinctively Indigenous cultural foundation. The training program springboards from Indigenous culture and contemporary theatre techniques, in such a way that students will receive a uniquely Indigenous beginning to their performance arts careers. The curriculum integrates training in the areas of acting, voice and movement with Indigenous cultural classes in dance, song and oral history. The program also offers a professional development component, which allows students and working professional artists to train together, adding a mentoring element to the curriculum. To gain practical performance experience, students are given the opportunity to publicly perform through community showcase events, story creation projects and year-end shows featuring senior students. We seek to create performance, rooted in our mythology and oracy through cultural instruction aimed at bringing out the cultural memory of the individuals attending the school and validating their perception of culture.

The Centre for Indigenous Theatre gratefully acknowledges the support of The Department of Canadian Heritage, Canada Council for the Arts, The Ontario Arts Council, The Toronto Arts Council, the National Aboriginal Achievement Foundation, Baagwating Community Association (Mississaugas of Scugog Island First Nation), Bank of Montreal Financial Group, Miziwe Biik Aboriginal Employment & Training, The Cultural Human Resource Council, The George Cedric Metcalf Charitable Foundation and the Suncor Energy Foundation.

For more information or media enquiries please call (416) 506-9436. Jeffrey Ross, Marketing Coordinator

or in Sioux Lookout, Laurel Wood (807) 737-2174
lawood@gosiouxlookout.com

-30-

The Centre for Indigenous Theatre
401 Richmond Street West, Suite 205
Toronto, Ontario M5V 1X3
citmail@indigenoustheatre.com
www.indigenoustheatre.com

From Ottawa Sun ...

Natives Push to Find Remains

Monday May 14th - By JORGE BARRERA, NATIONAL BUREAU

A Native group is threatening an "escalating campaign of civil disobedience" to force the federal government into identifying and repatriating the bodies of 50,000 Native children who the group claims died in residential schools.

Thirty-five members of the group, called The Friends of the Disappeared, occupied the Vancouver offices of Indian Residential Schools Resolution Canada on Friday.

"Until the remains of these children are repatriated (to traditional lands) and their murderers brought to justice, church and government facilities across Canada will be disrupted in an escalating campaign of civil disobedience," said the group in a statement sent to Sun Media.

The group, made up of Indian residential school survivors and their supporters, claims 50,000 children died in the schools.
Indian Affairs Minister Jim Prentice has asked the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, created as part of a compensation package for school survivors, to count the dead and find where they are buried.

FINDING DEAD IMPOSSIBLE

But naming and finding them may be impossible. Many were buried in unmarked graves and the records are incomplete.

The country's leading scholar on residential schools, Trent University professor John Milloy, was asked 10 years ago by a family to find a child who committed suicide in one of the schools. Milloy, however, said he could find no records to lead him to a body.

"You are not going to get a lot of information on the number of children who died," said Milloy.

Bob Watts, interim executive director of the commission, remains optimistic. More and more records are coming into their hands, including private documents like school officials' diaries.

"We are getting more and more files on a daily basis," said Watts, former chief of staff to Assembly of First Nations National Chief Phil Fontaine. "There is more and more history coming forward."

PAUPER'S BURIAL

Native children were buried "two in a grave" in at least one residential school, according to documents discovered by Milloy in the National Archives of Canada.

The children were buried together to save money.

"I directed the undertaker to be as careful as possible in his charge, so he gave them a burial as near as possible to that of a pauper. They are buried two in a grave," wrote Rev. J. Woodsworth, principal of a Red Deer, Alta., school in a 1918 letter to the Department of Indian Affairs.

From the Peterborough Examiner ...

Two solitudes; No hope of common ground between natives, non-natives: aboriginal lawyer

JEANNE PENGELLY / Examiner Education Writer
Local News - Saturday, May 12, 2007

An aboriginal lawyer says there is no hope of common ground between native and non-natives.

"There is no cultural common (ground). People who are trying to talk about one are likely to fail," said Paul Williams, an aboriginal lawyer from Six Nations who has handled more than 100 Indian land claims.

Instead, natives and non-natives are on a "collision" course that began when Europeans landed on North American soil and the only possible shock absorbers are respect, trust and friendship, Williams told a gathering of about 30 educators and academics at Trent University yesterday.

"What appears to be happening is in fact repeated offers to paths of assimilation, which essentially means elimination," he said.

"Not at the senior government level, not at the university levels do people understand - these are irreconcilable differences.
"

Calling the conversation "chilling and challenging," Joe Sheridan, a York University professor and organizer of this weekend's Eco-Justice Education Conference, said the "future of humanity" is at stake.

The topics ranged from spirituality to the environment, but all had the same core - there is no way to separate the outside world from humanity.

The problem is that non-natives have a different world view, Sheridan said.

This is most evident in universities and colleges, he said.

"At the post-secondary education level, we are doing something grievously wrong," Sheridan said.

"It's eco-apartheid. By requiring aboriginal people to take PhDs in post-secondary institutions, prevents the voices of traditional knowledge from being heard."

That's something the leader of the 42-member First Nations of the Anishinabek Nation said must change.

"All too often universities want to put all of their apples in one basket," Grand Council Chief John Beaucage told the group at Gzowski College's Gathering Space.

"Our elders have every bit as much knowledge as a person with a PhD in environmental science. We would be cheating ourselves and our children if we don't consider the teachings of our elders."

Williams said the problem stems from people focusing on some future point, rather than the here-and-now.

"Forgive my cynicism," Williams said. "I don't think human beings are the be-all and end-all on earth. Once you become a society that believes you have a destination, what about the people you meet along the way?"

If there is no hope for reconciliation, there's no need for truth and reconciliation commissions, he said.

While he says it's a "huge challenge," Bob Watts, newly appointed director of the Assembly of First Nations' truth and reconciliation commission, said he's optimistic.

"There may be a need to set aside notions of superiority and imperialism," Watts said.

Curve Lake First Nation Chief Keith Knott said he was "inspired" by the conference.

"What I would like to see is to take the setting and bring it out in the open," he told The Examiner.

"Nobody knows when the rest of the world is ready."

Knott said Trent University - with its history of respect for indigenous studies and with buildings set part in the city, part in the country - is a good place to start.

Ontario Government Press Release ...

McGuinty Government Expanding Telepsychiatry Services For Children And Youth - Increased Funding Will Enhance Access To Child Psychiatrists Across Ontario

TORONTO, May 10, 2007 - The McGuinty government is helping more children and youth with mental health and behavioural challenges get the help they need by expanding Ontario’s telepsychiatry program to 10 new rural, remote and underserved communities across the province, Minister of Children and Youth Services Mary Anne Chambers announced today.

“Helping children and youth with mental health challenges receive the support they need to achieve their potential is a key priority,” said Chambers. “That’s why our government has increased funding for the children and youth mental health sector by nearly $80 million since 2004. And that’s why we will continue to strengthen community programs such as telepsychiatry, so children and youth get the services they need, delivered in an integrated and holistic way.”

Ontario’s telepsychiatry program is a creative solution for increasing access and reducing wait times for children and youth in rural, remote and underserved communities. It uses videoconferencing to provide children, youth and their families or caregivers with access to clinical consultations with a child psychiatrist without having to leave their local communities. It also provides agency staff with vital education and training to build their professional expertise, so they can provide better service to young people in these communities.

The additional $1.5 million investment this year brings the government’s total investment in Ontario’s telepsychiatry program to $2.4 million annually. These funds will support service delivery to 10 new rural, remote and underserved communities across the province through the addition of two new hubs to Ontario’s existing telepsychiatry network. The program’s capacity will be increased to provide approximately 1,400 consultations annually, beginning this year.

The two new hubs will deliver services to community agencies and are expected to be operational by the end of May 2007. They are:

• a Western Hub in London, operated by the Child and Parent Resource Institute in partnership with the London Health Sciences Centre, St. Joseph’s Regional Mental Health Care London, Windsor Regional Hospital and the University of Western Ontario;

• an Eastern Hub in Ottawa, operated by the Children's Hospital of Eastern Ontario.

The program is currently operated by the Hospital for Sick Children, the Central Hub, which delivers services to 14 communities in rural, remote and underserved areas across the province.

Since 2004, the McGuinty government has spearheaded other important changes that will build on and benefit children and youth with special needs and their families. As a result:

• Starting this year, Ontario’s children and youth with mental health challenges will benefit from an additional $24.5 million annual investment across the province. This builds on previous investments in more than 260 child and youth mental health agencies and 17 hospital-based outpatient programs.

• Children’s treatment centres are providing more services to almost 7,000 more young people with physical and developmental disabilities and other special needs. These community-based centres serve approximately 45,000 children and youth every year.

• The number of children with Autism receiving Intensive Behaviour Intervention (IBI) services has more than doubled since 2003 to more than 1,100, and children are no longer being discharged on the basis of age.

• More urban Aboriginal children and youth are receiving the support, tools and activities needed to make healthy choices through Akwe:go, a community-based program administered by the Ontario Federation of Indian Friendship Centres and delivered in 27 Ontario communities

“We owe it to our most vulnerable children and youth to do all we can to help them reach their full potential,” said Chambers. “By strengthening supports for our young people, we are helping more children and youth become healthy, productive adults.”

Also see Fact Sheet -- Ontario’s Expanded Telepsychiatry Services

May 10, 2007
Ontario’s Expanded Telepsychiatry Services

Ontario’s telepsychiatry program is a creative solution for increasing access and reducing wait times for children and youth in rural, remote and underserved communities. It uses videoconferencing to provide children, youth and their families or caregivers with access to clinical consultations with a child psychiatrist without having to leave their local communities. It also provides agency staff with vital education and training to build their professional expertise, so they can provide better service to young people in these communities.

An additional $1.5 million investment this year brings the government’s total investment in Ontario’s telepsychiatry program to $2.4 million annually. These funds will support service delivery to 10 new rural, remote and underserved communities across the province, and add two new hubs to Ontario’s existing telepsychiatry network. The charts below show the areas served.

Hubs - Location




Current Sites - Location*


New Sites - Location*

Presse Release ...

Sioux Lookout Mothers and Daughters Canoe to Raise Money for Youth

May 11, 2007 - Sioux Lookout. Twelve women announced here today that they will embark on a three-day, 50- kilometre canoe trip to help keep the Sioux Lookout Anti-Racism Committee (SLARC) Youth Centre open.

On June 1, 2007, the women will set out from Abram Lake near Sioux Lookout paddling 25 kilometres to Stranger Lake and back in an effort to raise $5,000 on behalf of the Youth Centre, a popular place for town youth to hang out in the evenings.

This is the fifth time the women of the community both Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal have experienced a wilderness adventure together under the leadership of Lorraine Kenny, Lac Seul social activist. “For each trip we look for a cause that will benefit the community,” said Ms. Kenny. One year it was the Sunset Women’s group. Another time it was the Sioux Lookout Menoyawin Hospital. This year we are focusing on youth because our daughters are involved in the trip and because the Youth Centre really needs our help”.

The Multicultural Youth Centre is an important and successful resource for Sioux Lookout’s youth, providing a safe and cool hangout that is drug and alcohol free. The youth – from both First Nations and non-Native backgrounds –  run the Centre with supervision. Participation at the Youth Centre has been growing exponentially with over 2,400 visits from local youth this year. Supported by SLARC with space provided by the town, there is at present no funds available to provide programming and supervision support for the Centre.

“The canoeathon is always fun and a challenge,” said four-time women’s canoeathon participant Laurel Wood. “It’s great to introduce new women to canoeing and the time together on the water is good for us all and good for our community too."

All donations will receive a tax-deductible receipt from the Sioux Lookout Anti-racism Committee.

For More Information Please contact
Jennifer Morrow Business Manager
Sioux Lookout Anti-Racism Committee
(807) 737-4901
jmorrow@slarc.ca

or

Lorraine Kenny
807 7372727
lorrainekenny@knet.ca

From the Canadian Press ...

Aboriginal land claim spending set to drop
By SUE BAILEY The Canadian Press

OTTAWA — Tensions are rising over native land disputes, but federal funds to settle them would drop under newly released spending plans.

The government’s Plans and Priorities report says the core amount budgeted to resolve land claims will be steadily cut over the next three years.

Indian Affairs Minister Jim Prentice says the document should be ignored, however, since he’ll move this spring to overhaul a discredited system "as soon as is practical."

Basic funding for related settlements is set at about $159 million this fiscal year, said Michel Roy, assistant deputy minister overseeing land claims at Indian Affairs.

That amount is slated to drop to just under $153 million next year and to $143.1 million in 2009-10.

The planned spending decrease is mainly due to the gradual completion of payments owed under certain major land deals, Roy said.

Yet there are no planned increases to speed a settlement process that the government itself concedes isn’t working.

An exhaustive Senate committee report earlier this year urged the Conservatives to commit at least $250 million a year. The alternative, it warned, is the flare-up of more potentially ugly clashes like the one that pitted native against non-native in Caledonia, Ont., last year over a housing development.

Frustration is once again building in the southwestern Ontario community as complex talks drag on.

Farther east, a rail blockade three weeks ago by a splinter group of Mohawks of the Bay of Quinte paralyzed passenger and freight traffic between Toronto and Montreal. The protest near Deseronto, Ont., caused chaos for a day until it was peacefully ended.

There are more than 800 unsolved claims in a growing "inventory" of cases across much of Canada, Roy says. Of those, just 120 have made it to the active negotiation stage.

It typically takes 13 years for a case to be resolved from start to finish, he says.

From the Canadian Jewish News ...

An apology that’s long overdue

The following official court notice appeared in local newspapers recently: “The Indian residential schools settlement has been approved. The healing continues.”

The court order states that $1.9 billion be given to native people who suffered in residential schools. Up to $275,000 per person will go to individuals based on the amount of sexual, physical and psychological abuse they suffered; $125 million has been set aside for “healing”; $60 million is earmarked for “research” and preserving the experiences of the survivors; and $20 million will go to national and community commemorative projects.

If you’ve never read about Canada’s residential schools, Google “native residential schools Canada” and learn that children were pulled from the arms of their parents as part of religious missionary work and taken to one of 72 residential schools across Canada. The last schools closed in 1996.

In these unsanitary schools, children were punished for speaking their language and forced to sleep next to youngsters dying of tuberculosis (of whom thousands were buried in unmarked graves).

The $1.9 billion that has been earmarked to pay for this genocide – the UN Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide says the forcible transfer of children from one group to another is an act of genocide if done “with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group” – is long overdue and far too little.

If it’s possible to quantify the value of a child, whether that child died in St. Philip Residential School or Duck Lake boarding school (where it is said that more than one half of the children sent there died before their 18th birthdays), $1.9 billion does not cover one single native son or daughter who died at the hands of nuns, priests, government officials and those sworn to protect us, the RCMP.

Over the next year, survivors of the residential schools or their family members will make claims for the suffering they endured. Those who present appropriate evidence will one day receive a cheque in the mail. They will open the envelope, remove the cheque and likely stare at it for a long time – the same way, I imagine, Jewish Holocaust survivors do when they hold a German government cheque in their hand.

The amount of the cheque or the simple fact they were granted financial compensation, will not, however, be sufficient to give them closure.

To achieve that will require thorough and ongoing education for people like you and me that reveals the anguish our native people have gone through. Our schools need to bare the Canadian soul by teaching the real history of Canada, including the nasty policies of corporations that committed unspeakable crimes against native Canadians.

To find closure, a government cheque will not suffice. The prime minister of Canada must involve our entire country in a truth and reconciliation process so, we, the children and grandchildren of those who perpetrated this national crime, are encouraged to beg forgiveness from native survivors, and from those who died and will never have a voice.

He must speak to the entire nation, on prime time television, and say: “We can never properly repay those who lost their lives in Canadian residential schools. We will never be able to return children to their mother’s arms who died in those horrific places. The Canadian people will forever live with this aspect of our history. However, today we beg you for forgiveness.”

How is it possible that in our country, one with “glowing hearts,” the most vulnerable among us – our children – were treated by the Anglican, Catholic and United churches like the enemy? How do we come to grips with the fact our government for decades ignored report after report that death tolls in some of these schools had reached 69 per cent?

To our children, our Aboriginal children, we say: “We are deeply sorry.”

Press Release ...

Conservatives are Sending Mixed Signals on Bulk Water Sales - An Interview with Mark Holland

OTTAWA, ON, May 8 - In an interview on water.ca, Liberal MP (Ajax-Pickering) Mark Holland said that the export of bulk water in any fashion, including diversions and removals, is not acceptable. Canada is very fortunate to have great amounts of water, but they should not be taken for granted, especially in the context of climate change and the uncertain effects it will have on our environment. Bulk water exports are dangerous to our environment and natural ecology.

Of great concern to Mr. Holland and to his party, are the recent meetings held under the North American Prosperity Partnership where bulk water sales were being discussed. According to Mr. Holland, in delegating government bureaucrats to this meeting, the Conservatives are sending a mixed signal which threatens our very sovereignty over Canadian water resources. The fact that these meetings were held behind closed doors, did not include other parties and were not made public is also very disturbing.

It would be wise and prudent, according to Mr. Holland, to have a National Water Policy not only to reiterate our opposition to bulk water sales, but also in terms of our domestic consumption and the impact of global warming on our water resources.

Other topics discussed during the interview include the need to give Canadian cities the powers and resources they need to manage issues such as infrastructure renewal; and the absolute importance of dealing with the horrible water problems in native communities.

For a more detailed account of this interview, you are invited to log onto water.ca where all interviews are posted in their entirety.

Water.ca is an online information service dedicated to the preservation of Canada's water. The site also features an interactive map pinpointing all water advisories across the country, and a Red Button Service to alert communities faced with a water crisis.

For further information: Matt Armstrong, (613) 225-5353, armstrong.water@gmail.com

From Timmins Daily Press ...

Mattagami First Nation, Liberty Mines sign MOU
Michael Peeling, The Timmins Daily Press - May 04, 2007

A First Nation and a junior mining company signed the beginnings of a partnership Friday.

Mattagami First Nation Chief Walter Naveau and councillors met with Edmonton-based Liberty Mines Inc. president Gary Nash at the community hall to sign a memorandum of understanding.

The memo signifies both parties' commitment to developing a long-term agreement to keep the Redstone nickel mine in production and start the McWatters mine on Mattagami lands, ensuring the lives of the mines for years to come.

"We just had some recent drill results (at Redstone) about half an hour ago, which proves that the mine is going to have an extended life," Nash said. "That's excellent for what we're doing here today to develop our company and Mattagami First Nation and our growing relationship as partners."

Mattagami's resource liaison Chris McKay says Liberty has done a good job recognizing that the nickel deposits to be mined are located on the First Nation's traditional lands.

Naveau believes Liberty's project in the area has already benefited his community.

"It's created a good working relationship," Naveau said. "And it's helping us as a First Nations community to achieve our dreams and goals in terms of education for our young people."

Naveau emphasized council's appreciation of Nash coming to Mattagami to share Liberty's discoveries in the land.

Other companies mined 276,700 tons of nickel from Redstone, located 24 kilometres southeast of Timmins, from 1989 to 1996.