Media.Knet.Ca

Fort Hope, Ontario

February 17, 18, 19, 20 2005.

PeeWee 11 & 12 yrs old

Bantams 13 & 14 yrs old

Midgets 15 to 18 yrs old

$200.00 Entry Fee

Deadline February 1st 2005

First 6 out town teams (per division to) to confirm

- cash prizes - trophies - medallions

Friday & Saturday Night Dances

For more information contact:

Clara @ (h) 242-1431 or (w) 242-1573  

Eva @ (h) 242-1297 or (w) 242-1515

We will soon have an email address and a MyKnet.org website to keep you updated

Northern Nishinawbe Education Council Post Secondary celebrates 25 years!!

NAN Women’s Gathering November 22-26, 2004
Travelodge Airlane Hotel
Thunder Bay, Ontario

Tuesday 23rd November 2004:  A house fire last weekend in Long Lake #58 First Nation has stripped a local family of six of their home and personal belongings.  The Chief and council of the community are appealing to the public for donations of goods and money to help support the family over the next few months.

The family, which has four children, ages 10, 9, 8 and 4, is currently residing with family members in the community and are in need of essential living items such as clothing, toys, and food. The family has been living on a limited income and all their Christmas shopping was also lost in the fire.

Says Chief Veronica Waboose of Long Lake #58 First Nation; “As a community, we are rallying to support this distressed family as much as we can. However, most of our families are struggling to live on a limited income themselves and so we would welcome any additional donations from the local community at large to help support this family, especially through the Christmas season.”

All donations should be sent to Matawa First Nations Management and specify that they are for Long Lake #58 Fire Donations.

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Media Contact:
Stephanie Ash
Matawa First Nations Management; Tel: 807 767 4443; Email: stephanie@firedogpr.com

Dan Pellerin, K-Net's Network Manager, presented information about ICTs and broadband infrastructure in First Nations at today's session of the Aboriginal Voice roundtable in Toronto. Darrin Potter and Craig Hardy will be presenting tomorrow about the Keewaytinook Internet High School along with Fernando Oliveira who will share the story about the KO Grade 8 Supplementary Courses.

This is the second roundtable in a series of four and is the topic for this Ontario Roundtable is Aboriginal E-learning. Two more roundtables are planned for the western and northern regions of the country. The roundtable discussions is being coordinated by a consulting group (KTA - Kaufman, Thomas and Associates, Inc.) and their KTA Centre for Collaborative Government divisioin.

From their Aboriginal Voice web site (click here to learn more) ...

"Information and communication technologies (ICTs) are poised to revolutionize the way in which governments interact and provide services and information to their citizens. Aboriginal Canadians have begun to develop ICT as an essential tool in governance, information sharing, and service provision. If harnessed appropriately, ICT offers critical opportunities to strengthen cultural identity, promote sustainable community development, and greater self-reliance among Aboriginal peoples. ...

The Keewaytinook Okimakanak Telehealth team planned and delivered a very successful gathering in Sioux Lookout on Wednesday and Thursday, Nov 17-18. First Nation Health Directors and Community Telehealth Coordinators from across the Sioux Lookout Health Zone met to discuss the development of telehealth in their communities. There were approximately 80 people participating in this important planning event.

Click here to see a list of the members of the KO Telehealth team from Balmertown, Sioux Lookout and the First Nations across the north. They were joined and supported by:

• John Rowlandson, the former KO Telehealth Project Manager from British Columbia and Telehealth Sustainability Consultant with KO;
• Doug Semple (Wunnumin Lake FN) and Margaret Fiddler (Sandy Lake FN) who facilitated the gathering;
• The Kuhnenah Network team (Lars Dixon - Balmertown Network Technician, John Moreau - Sioux Lookout Network Technician and Dan Pellerin - K-Net Network Manager)
• Andres Ibanez (Guelph University) and John Hogenbirk (Laurentian University in Sudbury) who are working on the Telehealth evaluation;
• other tribal council health coordinators (Shibogama, IFNA, Matawa, Windigo) and health care program folks from the Aboriginal Health Authority, Zone Nursing, Health Canada.

Other guests joining the folks from the north included:

• Northern Ontario School of Medicine (Orpah McKenzie)
• Confederation College
• Adcom and Polycom with the telemedicine suite used in the north
• First Nations and Inuit Health Branch of Health Canada (Simon, Ernie, Kathy)
• Primary Health Care Transition program of Health Canada (Jackie, Guy)
• FedNor of Industry Canada (Carl Seibel)
• Canada Health Infoway (Denis, Krista, Tina)
• Nunavut Telehealth project team members (Angela, Megan, Carlos)

Watch for the pictures in Telehealth Photo gallery (click here) and for further updates and reports in the KO Telehealth web site at:

http://telehealth.knet.ca

On November 20, 2004, the Honourable Carolyn Bennett, Minister of State for Public Health, visited the Keewaytinook Okimakanak office in Sioux Lookout.

Roger Valley, MP, hosted the Minister during her visit to the Kenora riding. On Saturday, Minister Bennett and Roger drove from Dryden in a snow storm to participate in the planned session.

After meeting the K-Net team at the Keewaytinook Okimakanak office, a driving tour of the Kuhkenah Network including the new 7.3M satellite earthstation provided the minister with an orientation about the work being done in delivering community based connectivity solutions for remote communities across northern Ontario. The tour included the community’s health care facilities with presentations and demonstrations at the Teleheath and Teleradiology facilities at Menoyawin Health Care Centre.

Returning to the Keewaytinook Okimakanak office building, a virtual Minister’s Roundtable on Public Health and Technology took place.  This was accomplished through a video conference, linking Sioux Lookout with Balmertown, Thunder Bay and Keewaywin First Nation.  The event included presentations on programs including:  Telehealth; Diabetes; Aboriginal Head Start; Tobacco and the proposed KO Virtual Health Access Centre.

Participants in the roundtable discussion and presentations included representatives from the Keewaytinook Okimakanak’s (KO) Balmertown office and their Teleheath Program (Penny Carpenter) and Research Institute in Thunder Bay (Brian Walmark).  As well as representatives from Keewaywin First Nation (Chief Raymond Mason and his team of health care providers) and Lac Seul First Nation (Chief David Gordon and Jennifer Manitowabi); Sioux Lookout First Nations Health Authority (Janet Gordon), SLAAMB (Sam Manitowabi), Northern Ontario School of Medicine (Orpah McKenzie, Aboriginal Affairs Director and Dr. Dan Hunt, Western Campus Dean) and Health Canada (Mike Lovett, Zone Director).

The roundtable meeting was followed by a traditional feast of wild food (goose, wild rice, moose, fish, deer, bannock, blueberry pie, etc) that was coordinated by Jeannie Carpenter and Tabatha Jourdain.

Geordi Kakepetum, Executive Director of Keewaytinook Okimakanak commented in the Nov 10 press release, “it is always a pleasure to showcase and celebrate with government officials and our partners, the work that has been achieved with their strategic investments in First Nations communities and organizations.”

“It is a privilege to have the Honourable Carolyn Bennett, Minister of State for Public Health, visit the Kenora riding.  The Minister has expressed a keen interest to learn more about the uniqueness of the Kenora riding in terms of public health issues as well as the use of technology to address public health needs” added Roger Valley, MP, Kenora.

For further information contact:
Trudy Griffiths, Executive Assistant, Roger Valley, MP (807) 221-7060

The K-Net Story - Weaving the Networked Economy has now been released in a video format. This new video production produced by George Ferreira, a Phd candidate at the University of Guelph, pulled this one together after visiting all the KO First Nations and various K-Net partners.

The K-Net Story can be found at:

http://streaming.knet.ca/knet-story_100k.wmv
http://streaming.knet.ca/knet-story_300k.wmv

This video production is available on a DVD which is divided up into six
chapters (Introduction, Network Development, Economic Development, Health
Care, Education and Visions for the Future). The entire video is 30 minutes
in length.

Everyone's feedback and comments on the K-Net Story video production is appreciated. Please e-mail me at brian.beaton@knet.ca

Audience members recommended KO seek funding from Heritage Canada to increase the amount of First Nations cultural content on the 'Net...

From the AFN press release (November 17, 2004)

National Chief Fontaine stated in an AFN press release,  “Fair and reasonable compensation is due for the survivors but we must also deal with the emotional, physical, psychological and cultural trauma that stem from these schools. Our communities are still dealing with this attempt at forced assimilation.  It was nothing less than an assault on our children, our communities and our culture. Children were apprehended from their home and families, beaten if they spoke their language and forbidden to practice their traditional spirituality. The after-shocks are still being felt today and we cannot move forward until we have healed ourselves as individuals and as a country.”

“The current ADR process is an adversarial system that is not working and is in fact re-victimizing many survivors,” said National Chief Fontaine.  “It is failing Canadians by wasting taxpayers dollars.  It is failing First Nations and all Canadians by denying timely and just compensation.  Most importantly, it failing all of us because it is not leading to the healing and reconciliation that is required at a national level so that we can finally put behind us, in an honourable way, the legacy of this disgraceful and sad chapter in our history.”

The AFN’s report addresses all of these issues and recommends a two-pronged approach to improve the current ADR process. The first part involves fair and reasonable compensation, including a lump sum payment that would be awarded to all survivors (or their descendants), along with an additional amount for each year spent in the school.  Survivors can also be compensated for severe emotional abuse as well as physical and sexual abuse.  The report also calls for on-going activities and resources for the Aboriginal Healing Foundation given its emphasis on culturally-based approaches to healing.

The second part of the report puts forward the concept of creating a national mechanism for truth-sharing, healing and reconciliation.  The truth-sharing process would be designed by survivors and stakeholders, and would be accessible to those who attended the schools, their families and any other parties willing to share their experiences and recommendations.

Click here for the entire AFN press release.

Click here to see the AFN report (PDF document - 54 pages) - "Assembly of First Nations Report on Canada’s Dispute Resolution Plan to Compensate for Abuses in Indian Residential Schools"

Click here to see the CBC article "AFN calls for immediate $10,000 payment to residential school survivors"