Media.Knet.Ca

As the Board of Directors of Keewaytinook Okimakanak, the Chiefs of the KO First Nations meet regularly to review and approve the work being completed by their organization. Recent elections in some of the KO First Nations have resulted in new community leaders in Deer Lake, Fort Severn and North Spirit Lake. Deer Lake Chief Evelyn Meekis, Keewaywin Chief John McKay, McDowell Lake Chief Eli James, North Spirit Lake Councillor David Campbell and Poplar Hill Councillor Danny Owen attended the one day meeting in Balmertown.

On Wednesday, August 6, the Chiefs reviewed this past year's audit with Kevin Houghton, KO's Finance Officer. They met with KO's new economic development officer and reviewed recent developments under the Smart Communities Demonstration project. The next full board meeting is planned for early September.

Click here to view the pictures from this meeting.

On Wednesday, August 6, Peter Campbell, Keewaytinook Okimakanak Public Works Manager presented Peter Barber with a gift recognizing the many years of service and support that Peter provided to the KO First Nations. Peter worked as the Project Officer with the Ministry of Northern Development and Mines overseeing numerous infrastructure projects in all the KO First Nations. The development of housing, water and sewer, roads, hydro, telecommunications and many other projects were successfully completed with Peter's support and encouragement. His work over the years has contributed to the development of the First Nation communities across the region.

We are fortunate that Peter recently accepted a position where he will be able to continue to work with the First Nations across the north as a special projects officer developing economic initiatives with Indian and Northern Affairs Canada. We look forward to more opportunities to develop new economic projects  working in partnership with Peter Barber.

Indian and Northern Affairs Canada Minister Robert Nault was in Balmertown this morning to announce funding of the All Weather Road Initiative north of Red Lake. The event was streamed on the Internet live and there is now an archive that you can view at  http://streaming.knet.ca/allweatherroad.wmv . Representatives from several of the Keewaytinook Okimakanak First Nations participated in this event via video conference.

Click here to check out the pictures of this event.

The inaugural e-newsletter from Northern Ontario Native Tourism Association is now available. Click here to read this summer's newsletter (4 pages PDF, 419K). Other newsletters are available in a hard copy format from the NOTA office.

This issue highlights the 3rd Annual Aboriginal Tourism Conference held in Sault Ste Marie in May 2003. Additional pictures from the conference are available at www.instapicphoto.com/tourism.  Click here to see the Conference Report (39 pages PDF, 1.9M).

The Aboriginal Tourism Development Strategic Plan for Northern Ontario (282 pages PDF, 2M) is also available on the NONTA web site.

Mitchell Diabo
Partnership Development Advisor
Northern Ontario Native Tourism Association
Website: www.nonta.net
E-mail: mitch@nonta.net
Tel: (807) 623-0497
Fax: (807) 623-0498
Cell: (807) 472-7867

Wayne Collins, Technical Director at the Education Network of Ontario sent the past three days reviewing the Kuh-ke-nah Network's infrastructure design, the existing hardware and software configuration and discussing present and future network needs, plans and directions. Wayne worked with Dan Pellerin and other K-Net team members to identify strengths and gaps in the network and to determine potential development streams for network growth.

The Education Network of Ontario (ENO) is one of Keewaytinook Okimakanak's important partners in both the development and operation of the existing Kuh-ke-nah Network (K-Net). As a Gold Circle Partner, ENO continues to provide essential connectivity services and advise to the ongoing operational and development of the network from their offices in Toronto.

Wayne is producing a report of his findings and recommendations which the K-Net Smart team will use to assist in determining our strategic investments as the Smart Communities project completes its third successful year of operations.

 Lance Redbourne, Tech Director with NNEC stopped by and met Wayne and Dan.

 Wayne also had a chance to work with John on the set up of the IP Telephony Call Manager system.

More and more people are getting on-line and using the on-line K-Net services.

Over 14 MILLION hits occurred on the K-Net servers during the month of July. Specifically, on the seven servers with traffic graphs, there were a total of 14,822,360 hits and 328,887 visits made to these on-line services provided by Keewaytinook Okimakanak.

Several of the K-Net servers that are being monitored for hits, visits and usage statistics using the webalizer program again showed an increase in June. In particular, the http://myknet.org server rose again to over 7.2 million hits during this month.

Please note:

• one reason for the 2 million hit increase from the previous month is the Hosting server statistics are now being included in the monthly K-Net statistics;
• 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.

Gathering Place First Nation Canadian News at http://www.gatheringplacefirstnationscanews.com provides readers with another source of news. Subscribers can receive weekly updates by e-mail or choose to browse the on-line resources. Readers are invited to submit their news stories for posting on the Gathering Place web site.

From the Gathering Place website:

"Everyday the mainstream Media carries stories about our peoples. Here you will find some of their stories.If you are looking for some Good News ...Just look to the left and press on Good News.If you see any stories you think needs to be shared.. Please copy and email GPFNCN"

"Welcome to Canada's #1 source for Aboriginal, Native, and First Nations News. I welcome you to come and be apart of this news service. Give us your thoughts, tell me what you would like to see here in this news place, Nai:wen to all who have sent and continue to send prayers and words of encouragement to me. We hope you like the new look of the site.

- Sharon, on:en

On July 29, representatives from SLAAMB, Confederation College and NNEC met with KO community members and KO staff to present information concerning General Educational Development(GED) and the Canadian Adult Achievement Test (CAAT). During the CAAT / GED Information Video-conference Wayne Zimmer and Gayle Murdock from Confederation College, Bob Bruyere from SLAAMB and John Dudley from NNEC talked about the GED test, their organizations involvement in setting up these initiatives in the First Nations. Discussions took place about the 12 weeks of community-based training that is being considered for KO First Nations with sufficient enrollment.

Information from the poster circulated before the meeting described the GED Test as a "measurement of the level of your Educational Maturity". The GED is a set of 5 Tests on the Key High School Subjects of:

• Language Arts: Writing
• Language Arts: Reading
• Mathematics
• Social Studies
• Science

If you score 450 or more on all 5 tests, you will get your Ontario High School Equivalency Certificate from Confederation College. Score less than 450 on any tests and you can re-write them. You don’t have to re-write tests if you scored over 450 on them.

To take the 12 week GED Preparation Training Program and be eligible to write the GED test you must :

1. Be seriously committed to a very intensive 12 week GED training program (night school) in your community;
2. Complete the Canadian Adult Achievement Test and score between Levels 9 and 10 or better;
3. Be at Least 19 or older (some 18 year olds may be eligible);
4. Not be a high school graduate;
5. Have been out of school for at least one full year;
6. Be a resident of Ontario.

If you’re on welfare or E.I. you can take training without penalty.

The Chiefs of Nishnawbe Aski Nation elected Stan Beardy to be their Grand Chief for a second consecutive term today at this year's Keewaywin Conference being held in Ginoogaming First Nation. Stan secured the required 23 votes on the first round ballot to win the vote over the other contenders.

After the election of the Grand Chief, the chiefs then heard the speeches from each of the eleven deputy grand chief candidates. The chiefs then cast their ballots for three Deputy Grand Chief positions. Successful candidates for these positions are Alvin Fiddler, Goyce Kakegamic and Dan Kooses. Both Goyce and Dan will be serving their second consecutive three year terms along with Stan.

Congratulations to Stan, Alvin, Goyce and Dan and all the other people who put their names forth as candidates.