Media.Knet.Ca

Sandy Lake's  Diabetes Prevention program is highlighted in tonight's CBC television show, The Nature of Things.

The Weight of the World - Wednesday, December 3, 2003 at 7 pm (repeats Sundays at 5:00pm)

From the CBC web site (http://www.cbc.ca/television)

The Weight Of The World is a one-hour documentary that unveils obesity as the first man-made epidemic the world has experienced. At the rate this deadly disease is spreading, it will drastically reduce the life expectancy of millions, if not billions, of people around the globe. The Weight Of The World takes the unique approach of examining obesity from a sociological perspective, rather than focusing on individuals who battle with excess fat.  

Smart team members from Deer Lake (Darrell Ostamas) and Fort Severn (Barney Turtle) are working with K-Net staff this week in Sioux Lookout. George Ferriera, a Phd candidate and professional videographer, traveled to Sioux Lookout on Friday to work with the K-Net team in gathering the video material and providing training support for everyone. Together, they are gathering video material from different organizations about their uses of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) and the applications that are being developed and delivered across the region. Click here to check out the pictures.

Over the past few months, George has traveled to North Spirit Lake, Keewaywin and Fort Severn to gather video material about how ICTs are being used in these First Nations. In January, he will be travelling to Deer Lake and Poplar Hill to complete the training and data collection efforts.

The video material will be used in a number of ways over the next few weeks and months. Video and editting equipment is being put into each of the KO First Nation e-Centres for the production and archiving of stories and documentaries that can be posted on-line. The evaluation of the Smart Communities project will use the video footage to present the stories as told from the people who are using these tools in their lives. Short video documentaries are being put together to be shared with others.

Using video material to tell the stories about the north, the land and the people, requires broadband connectivity in each of the communities. These tools are another way for the communities to help support the ongoing development and operation of their broadband connections.

Personal web pages at MyKnet.org continue to be the most popular on-line space for the Nishnawbe Aski to browse. In November there were over 15 million hits on this K-Net server (over 2 million more hits from the previous month)! The average daily hits on this server is over half a million hits!

All together there were over 24 MILLION hits occurring on the six most popular monitored K-Net servers throughout November. Specifically, on these six servers with traffic graphs, there were a total of 24,268,400 hits made to these on-line services provided by Keewaytinook Okimakanak. The six servers include myknet.org, knet.ca, webmail.knet.ca, hosting.knet.ca, highschool.knet.ca and photos.knet.ca. There were 437,624 visits made during this period to these six servers, indicating that people are exploring these sites more and more.

Most of the K-Net servers that are being monitored for hits, visits and usage statistics using the webalizer program again showed an increase during the month. But http://myknet.org rose by more than 2 million hits to demonstrate the rapid take up of these communication tools among users across the north.

Please note:

• other on-line K-Net services, such as K-Net chat and the video streamer are not included in these numbers;
• server traffic monitoring information is located at http://tech.knet.ca/~tech/monitoring.

Myknet.org

continues to be a popular resource for people across the region, especially the young people who are reading, writing and sharing their stories on-line. We are getting letters and e-mail messages from people who are using this on-line service for different purposes. Below is a sampling of some of the comments and stories that some people are sharing about myknet.org. It is important for everyone to understand that this service was created and is being maintained by the people who are using it. The K-Net team consists of everyone who uses these services and who helps make these resources a healthy on-line space for everyone else, especially the young people who enjoy visiting these web pages.

From one of the personal homepages …

Hello to everyone checking out my homepage. I just love this K-Net stuff. I’ve had an account for probably a year and a half now. There are so many Moose Factory people with accounts! It’s good to know what is happening with everyone. And you hear it right from them. … By viewing the homepages I’m getting first-hand information. I’m learning about people that I see around but that I normally wouldn’t talk to, simply because I don’t know them! That’s why I love it, it’s a good vehicle for communication.

I also check out the other homepages from different communities. I get to keep in touch with people from Peawanuck too. I’ve even gotten to correspond with some people from Saskatchewan and northwestern Ontario. There’s so many good homepages out there. It’s fun trying to figure out how to do the neat stuff that you see on their pages. I don’t mind sharing information once I learn it …. (November 21, 2003)

A personal e-mail message from a mother …

I would like to thank Knet for all their work with homepages and introducing all the services that they have on Knet. … some of the contents on the homepages are not so bad but a message from the youth on expressing their thoughts and feelings. About a month ago, my son posted his message about his feelings about depression. I was getting worried about what he had put there. It made me start thinking.

Then a crisis happened in his life and from there I arranged for him to start getting the help that he needs. If I didn't see what he had posted I wouldn't have gone to get help for him. He was thinking about suicide and was very close to attempting. And therefore I am happy that he’s getting the help that he needs now. Maybe it would have been too late if it weren't for Knet homepages. I applaud Knet for their internet services. Thank you very much.

I would encourage the parents to keep checking their young people’s homepages for the content.

Another personal e-mail message from a father …

A lot of people are enjoying the knet site especially myknet.org home pages. My kids are using these tools to communicate to friends, cousins and family in other communities. Knet is doing great stuff, just thought I'd share this with you

Another personal e-mail message from a mother …

I guess he noticed the smile on my face as I was going through the updates on the hp's [homepages]. I go through knet almost everyday to visit my son & daughter's hp's and among other relatives from the other communities.

Another personal homepage clip …

This KNET place iz pretty cool. Anywayz, still getting used to making pagez but check out the menu to visit sitez I already have up. There'z a new forum! Check it out and meet other savvvy Nishnobz like yourself *winking* You can read my latest THOUGHTZ at blogspot.com. Well thatz it for now.. (Nov 24, 2003)

The Resiliency Workbook for Survivors of Residential School (PDF document, 143K) is the publication produced for the survivors attending the gathering at Pelican Falls in May 2002. Sunset Aboriginal Women’s Circle sponsored the project with funding support from the Anglican Church and the funding groups that supported the gathering.

The development of this workbook came from all the stories that everyone shared during this event. There is a lot of discussions surrounding the concept of resiliency of residential school survivors. The workbook uses some of the information from the stories told by the conference participants during the large sharing circles at this gathering.

The workbook puts these stories and experiences together into a format that can hopefully be used by survivors of residential schools to assist everyone to develop their own resiliency story. It provides Residential School survivors with another tool to use on their healing journey.

Everyone is invited to complete each of the four exercises contained in the workbook. Exercise #4 provides an opportunity to submit your completed resiliency story to be posted on-line and shared with other residential school survivors. These resiliency stories are being gathered and posted so they can be shared with others who are still working on their own healing and development. This workbook and the resulting stories will be used to support Native families in their efforts to raise healthy children and build their communities from http://raisingthechildren.knet.ca web site.

The Sioux Lookout Nishnawbe Gamik Friendship Centre launched the Anokeewin Wiichiiwaawin Employment Centre web site with a ceremony and feast honouring the nine youth selected as the first role models for their new portal. The web site is located at http://workhere.ca

K-Net staff (Jesse Fiddler and Cal Kenny) worked with Anokeewin Wiichiiwaawin Employment Centre staff members (Melisse Wilson and Nadine Arpin) to create this web site. The celebration included a live video conference link with the Keewaytinook Okimakanak Thunder Bay office where two of the role models are able to join the ceremony (see the news story posted at http://firstnationschools.ca).

Each role model was recognized with a short biography read by Nadine Arpin with a gift being presented by the Friendship Centre's Executive Director, Laura Wynne. The on-line video clip containing a few words of wisdom from each role model was also viewed by the guests in attendance at this event. Afterwards a feast was hosted by the Friendship Centre for everyone in attendance.

On Thursday, November 27, Indian and Northern Affairs Canada Minister Robert Nault announced Health Canada's $3.4 million dollar contribution towards the expansion of the KO Telehealth initiative. The project will support all 24 First Nation Health Centres in the Sioux Lookout Zone to develop telemedicine resources over the next 2.5 years. The announcement took place in Keewaytinook Okimakanak's Balmertown office. It was webcast live on K-Net with the KO First Nations linked into the event via video conference.

Everyone is invited to watch this event on-line. Click here to watch the archived web cast.

Keewaytinook Internet High School November Newsletter is now available on-line.

Click here to open the PDF document (520kb).

The November 27 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:

• Workshops lead to each community’s ICT goals
: Over the past three years a series of community engagement workshops have been held in each of the KO First Nations to review and plan for the use of ICTs in each of the major service sectors. Raymond Mason, Keewaywin’s e-Centre Manager and Darlene Rae, North Spirit Lake’s e-Centre Manager share their experiences and the information about these workshops.
• Aboriginal Smart Fair will highlight K-Net’s ICT successes
: Keewaytinook Okimakanak is hosting a special 1 day showcase to demonstrate and share the work and information about the different initiatives being undertaken in the Smart Communities project. Industry Canada and First Nations reps from across Northern Ontario, Manitoba and elsewhere are invited to participate in this Smart Fair (for more information http://smart.knet.ca/fair).
• K-Net Showcase
- contains photos from the K-Net photo gallery at

http://photos.knet.ca with images of more of the First Nation organizations who are partnering with K-Net to create innovative applications and deliver services with the communities across Nishnawbe Aski Nation.

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.

Sandy Lake 1st Annual Invitational

Pee Wee & Bantam

Hockey Tournament

January 15, 16, 17, 2004

Host Teams

Sandy Lake Skyfalcons

Sandy Lake Ice Wolves

ENTRY FEE: $500.00

Trophies and Medallions will be presented.

For further information contact:

Ozzie Kakepetum
Sandy Lake Recreation Office
(807) 774-5445

or

Harvey Kakegamic
(807) 774-1309