Oshki-Pimache-O-Win Education and Training Institute
is now accepting registrations for the
First Nation Business Administration
Certificate Program
(January 2005 Intake)
The First Nation Business Administration Certificate Program is a one-year, two semester program, delivered in partnership with Cambrian College, that provides a comprehensive and culturally relevant educational experience that will:
Course List
Enroll Now!!!
Call (807) 346-2770 or 1-866-636-7454 (toll free) for more information
Oshki-Pimache-O-Win Education and Training Institute
is now accepting registrations for the
Native Early Childhood Education
Diploma Program
(January 2005 Intake)
The NECEP is a two-year, four semester program offered in partnership with Cambrian College, that provides a comprehensive and culturally relevant educational experience.
Students will:
Course List
Semester 1
Semester 2
Semester 3
Semester 4
Enroll Now!!!
Call 346-2770 for more information
Geordi Kakepetum, Keewaytinook Okimakanak's Executive Director, wrote an open letter to Prime Minister Paul Minister presenting a strategy to complete the work required to support all First Nations to develop local broadband infrastructure and uses for the network. Click here to read the entire letter and the AFN resolution (117K PDF). Hopefully other Aboriginal communities and organizations will send similar letters to the federal government encouraging further investment and development in these ICT tools.
"At the Assembly of First Nations (AFN) gathering in Charlottetown this past summer the attached Chiefs’ resolution (First Nation Telecommunication Technologies and Broadband Infrastructure) was tabled by Chief Raymond Mason from Keewaywin First Nation. The resolution recognizes the socio-economic importance of broadband connectivity in First Nations across the country. It directs the AFN leadership to ensure that Industry Canada (both regional and national programs) complete the job of ensuring that all Aboriginal communities have the opportunity to develop and maintain their own broadband infrastructure. The resolution also clarifies the role that other Federal government departments such as Indian and Northern Affairs Canada (INAC) and Health Canada need to undertake by supporting local and regional applications such as telehealth, e-learning, and e-commerce to ensure the ongoing sustainability of these community broadband networks. ...
It is important that any investment by the Federal government in the development of local broadband infrastructure, includes parallel investments in the ongoing development and operation of the different applications that address local needs. Strategic investments by INAC, Health Canada, Human Resource Development, Canadian Heritage supporting local broadband networks are required so they can remain sustainable. There are no federal or provincial programs that provide the necessary funds to maintain the operation of these services. This gap in funding must be addressed and eliminated.
There are various pilot projects that fund innovative services such as the Keewaytinook Okimakanak Telehealth Initiative or the Keewaytinook Internet High School. But these innovative projects are at risk unless operational funds are supported by the appropriate departments. Strategic capital investment from FedNor and other partners have made it possible to introduce local telemedicine, teleradiology, high school programs and other applications but now the need and challenge is to ensure the ongoing operation of these services.
The Auditor General noted in several reports about the challenges that First Nation communities are faced with as they try to work with the department of Indian and Northern Affairs Canada. Effective use of these new information communication technologies (ICTs) by INAC, Health Canada and First Nations will support the development of improved local services and opportunities. But these improvements will only occurred if these departments and their staff have the program dollars required to support the ongoing operation of these technologies and the broadband connections so the services can be sustained.
Today, federal regional agencies such as FedNor have the flexibility to compliment other programs such BRAND, that supports First Nations in completing the necessary local infrastructure builds. This type of program flexibility ensures that all communities, even those with limited financial and human resources are now able to compete for broadband infrastructure and develop local applications that address local needs. The National Satellite Initiative is supporting local regional economic opportunities through partnerships such as the Kativik Regional Government in northern Quebec with funding support from CED and their work with Keewaytinook Okimakanak in northern Ontario with strategic infrastructure investments by FedNor that now make satellite broadband available in nearly 30 remote Aboriginal communities in these inter-provincial regions. ..."
First published in Thunder Bay’s Chronicle-Journal newspaper on Saturday, October 16, 2004 (Page A7) as a Guest Column by Geordi Kakepetum, Keewaytinook Okimakanak’s Executive Director.
As Thunder Bay Telephone adopts a new course ("TbayTel aims to keep up with times" - C-J, Sept 29), it’s important to consider some of the opportunities that information communication technologies (ICTs) offer for community-based development.
Keewaytinook Okimakanak (the Northern Chiefs Council) was created more than 10 years ago to bring support services and other applications including connectivity and ICTs to our member First Nation communities in Ontario’s Far North. Back then, many of our communities did not even have residential telephone service. Our leadership understood that a technological revolution was taking place that we could not afford to miss.
To learn more, our chiefs travelled by bus to witness a demonstration of tele-medicine in Ottawa. They watched as a cardiologist at the Heart Institute diagnosed a patient in the Northwest Territories. Our leadership immediately saw the potential of such a tool to imporove the lives of people in Ontario’s Far North.
Since then, Keewaytinook Okimakanak (KO) (http://knet.ca) has become a leader in First Nation connectivity and telecommunications. We operate KNet Services (http://smart.knet.ca), a community-based telecommunications network, KO Telehealth (http://telehealth.knet.ca), and KiHS (http://kihs.knet.ca) to name just a few. Each of these applications was developed by our communities to address local needs.
I would like to share with you how education has changed in Ontario’s Far North because of this. Historically, our children had to leave their families and communities after they finished elementary school if they wanted to continue their education at high school in Sioux Lookout, Kenora or Thunder Bay. Not surprising many of these young people ran into trouble as they struggled to deal with the challenges of urban life.
Most of our communities simply could not support a full high school program because populations are small. Those communities with enough students to support a high school program could only afford to hire one or maybe two teachers. Like all rural and remote schools, our programs could not provide the full range of curriculum options that urban students take for granted. Further, it was difficult to hire and retain teachers to work under such conditions.
Keewaytinook Internet High School (http://kihs.knet.ca) was created by our communities to address each of these challenges. KiHS now offers Grade 9 and 10 courses for those who wish to remain home for the first two years of high school.
KiHS is not a "cyber school" where teachers and students can only interact with each other via e-mails and web pages. KiHS is a high school with classrooms located in the thirteen partner First Nation communities across Northwestern Ontario.
KiHS students attend a regular classroom each day under the direction of a teacher accredited by the Ontario College of Teachers. Instead of trying to teach all subjects at every grade level, each teacher is responsible for teaching only two courses, one at the Grade 9 level and the other in Grade 10, in his or her area of specialization. The teacher in Fort Hope, for example, teaches computer science to all of the students across the KiHS network via the Internet and videoconferencing.
How successful is KiHS? This program has been operating for only three years so it has not been objectively evaluated yet. We would like to know if smaller class sizes and the opportunities for on-on-one mentoring better prepares our students for the remaining years of high school. We would like to know how successful our students are when they graduate and move towards college, university and beyond.
Nevertheless, KiHS has achieved a number of its original objectives. It keeps our youth at home under the guidance of their parents and grandparents during those critical early teenage years. Would you want your children to leave home to attend Grade 9? Would you want them to board with strangers?
Many First Nation students who travel south to attend high school drop out shortly after September and return home. Without KiHS, these students would have nothing to do except get into trouble. KiHS allows these students to save their year by achieving at least some of their credits.
Some complete the maximum number of credits available. Many of these young people choose to remain KiHS students for Grade 10. There is pressure from the Chiefs and parents to expand KiHS to include Grade 11 and 12. If the program was not meeting their needs and expectations, our enrolment would not grow every year.
KiHS is just ne of the ICT applications that Keewaytinook Okimakanak has developed to serve the needs of our members. Like KiHS, KO Telehealth links via videoconferencing the sick and injured in 24 First Nations in the Sioux Lookout Zone with physicians and specialists in Winnipeg, Thunder Bay and Toronto. KNet Services is a community-based telecommunications network that is now supporting "Voice-over-Internet" telephony, videoconferencing, web pages and e-mail to name just a few of the services that we provide to First Nations people.
DFC students celebrate NNEC’s 25 anniversary
Amid the laughter and surprises, Dennis Franklin Cromarty (DFC) High School was in full motion as it celebrated NNEC’s 25 anniversary on October 15. DFC is one of the best schools commented one Wunnimun Lake student Starr Martin, 18. She notes that although it is fully hard “adjusting” to a new environment, she says it’s the “new friends” that make it a fun stay.
One of the reasons, why 19 year old Michael Goodman came to school at DFC was because “they have everything” from sports, to services that are for free he says. Goodman, a first year student at DFC, says that although he has never been to a high school in an urban setting, he says that DFC is a school worth going to because “everybody (is) being nice to everybody” he explained.
Nearly after 25 years of showing educational support to the Nishnawbe Aski-Nation (NAN), Northern Nishnawbe Education Council (NNEC) celebrated 25 years of on going dreams that become a reality. "Our Culture is unique and must be kept alive for our children" the NNEC's website explains. "Education must include knowledge of our language, culture, history, values heritage, and spiritual beliefs."
NNEC which also provides in school support for their students, say that it provides "Educational programs (that) must be culturally relevant with curricula designed, developed, and delivered by First nations people."
Into celebrating the 25th year, the school gathered all the students into the school gym where each one took a cake along with a hot cup of tea and coffee and shared a few laughs as they watched Team DFC playing against the DFC staff. (I figure they hate me now because I was acting like a pysho "di-killing papparazzi" at the gym with the tiny digital that was given to me by the school for me to use that afternoon... )
From communities as far as Fort Severn, to as far west as Sandy Lake - from the east side of Moosonee to the nearest Thunder Bay - each student says that NNEC means a lot to them.
We give it a “4 thumbs up” says students Pamela Chapman, Jenelle Matthews and Cheri Quequish of Kitchenumaykoosib Innuwug, (Big Trout Lake). Chapman, a third year student at DFC, says that the school offers a lot of programs that she thinks students would really like. “They have almost everything” cited Quequish, 16. The trio explained that although the school doesn’t have the sports they play, such as kick-boxing, and baseball, they say that the school remains awesome.
Goodman explains that although his first year experience is rewarding, he says he would recommend others on coming however, it would be “up to them” withier they’d like to or not. NNEC is also collaborated with the Pelican Falls First Nations High School in Sioux Lookout, Northern Eagle in Ear Falls and the Wahsa Distance Education which is a correspondence school delivered via radio.
By James Benson
A Study of the Role of the Thunder Bay Regional Health Sciences Centre and the Development of a Regional Service Plan for Northwestern Ontario (http://nwodhc.com/update.htm)
Tom Closson was appointed Special Advisor by the Minister of Health and Long-Term Care, the Honourable George Smitherman. As Chair of the Steering Committee overseeing this study, Mr. Closson welcomes your input to this study that is preparing a Regional Service Plan for Northwestern Ontario. The terms of reference for this study can be found at http://nwodhc.com/pdfs/terms.pdf.
Your interest and comments in the issue of access to tertiary services for the residents of Northwestern Ontario are being sought. As part of gathering input into A Study of the Role of the Thunder Bay Regional Health Sciences Centre and the Development of a Regional Service Plan for Northwestern Ontario, you can provide your comments via e-mail to planning@nwodhc.com (Subject line: Feedback).
From the web site:
You have the opportunity to outline the problems, as you see them, via e-mail. Also, we are interested in learning about the solutions you feel are available or any other advice you may wish to offer. Limit your remarks to the biggest three issues that, if resolved, would have the greatest impact for the most people in your community. Your ideas about how to solve the issues are most important to the committee.
There are several opportunities for your participation. First, there have been consultation sessions with various community leaders and stakeholders. Secondly, through an in-depth interview process, the Hay Group consultants will seek input from Northwestern Ontario residents. And thirdly, by submitting your comments via e-mail on this web site, you can participate in this study.
The final product will be developed from all of the work that has been done to date in Northwestern Ontario. The Minister will receive a framework for action and feasible recommendations for a regional health plan for Northwestern Ontario. The role of Thunder Bay Regional Health Sciences Centre will be described in that plan, and then, it will be up to the health care providers in Northwestern Ontario, the Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care, and the communities of Northwestern Ontario to implement the plan.
Russell Means was in Winnipeg in September sharing his thoughts about building strong and healthy communities. His message contain challenges for everyone to consider ... "Anything you don’t work for you shouldn’t get. If you don’t work, you shouldn’t be rewarded, period. It creates a dependency syndrome that is only beneficial to those who are in control."
Means' recommendations for positive change in First Nations include:
Means' was brought to Winnipeg by the Frontier Centre for Public Policy (http://fcpp.org/), an independent, non-profit think tank founded to undertake research and education in support of economic growth and social outcomes which will enhance the quality of life in our communities. Through a variety of publications and public forums, the Frontier Centre explores policy changes required to make the Prairies a winner in the open economy. It also provides new insights into solving important issues facing our cities, towns and provinces.
The Frontier Centre web site contains several more interviews, discussions and radio presentations with Russell Means. Check out ...
This year's Canadian Aboriginal Festival is happening at the SkyDome in Toronto on November 26, 27 and 28. There are activities planned for everyone, including:
The sixth annual Canadian Aboriginal Music Awards will honour the premiere musical artists of the Canadian Aboriginal communities. The Awards will be taking place Friday, November 26th at the John Bassett Theatre located in the Metro Convention Centre. Click here to see the list of 2004 finalists.
"There are currently only 16 Aboriginal medical school students in the five medical schools in Ontario, which is only 0.6% of the overall enrolment of 2,584. On the basis of equitable enrolment, there should be at least 44 Aboriginal medical students at the present time. Based on population, a conservative estimate is that there should be 375 Aboriginal doctors already in practice in Ontario rather than the current dozen." 2020 VISION: A Strategy for Graduating More Aboriginal
Physicians in Ontario, September 20, 2004
McMaster University President Dr. Peter George Addresses The 2020 Vision Symposium While Symposium Co-Chairs Hon. Roy Romanow and Elected Chief Roberta Jamieson Study Symposium Materials
Click here to read more about the 2020 Vision Symposium on the Six Nations web site
Wapekeka Full Gospel Church presents:
Wapekeka Youth Rally
November 26, 27, 28, 2004
Preacher: Joseph Campbell
Guest Singers: Betty Anderson, David Mamakwa
Travel will be at own expense, Meals and Accommodations will be provided.
Contact Person: Louie J. Brown @ 807-537-2315
Joel 2:28 And it shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh; and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your old men shall dream dreams, and your young men shall see visions.