Media.Knet.Ca

On Monday, May 2, Cal Kenny and Brian Beaton travelled with the Blair Electronics team (Bill and Roy) and Carl Seibel from FedNor to Attawapiskat. On Tuesday, they continued over to Peawanuck before returning to Sioux Lookout and Thunder Bay respectively.

Meetings were held with the community leaders, school and health administrators in each community to discuss the installation and operation of the new C-Band earth station that is being installed by Blair Electronics over this coming summer. FedNor is providing the funding for Keewaytinook Okimakanak to do the project management for the purchase and installation of earthstations in both of these communities as well as in Marten Falls (Ogoki). The communities are planning their local connections and applications for the use of this resource.

Click here to see the pictures of the Attawapiskat trip.

Click here to see the pictures of the Peawanuck leg of the trip.

The upcoming "Waawiisokodatidaa-Keeping the Circle Strong" Residential School gathering is being planned to take place at Wauzhushk Onigum (Rat Portage) First Nation on May 17, 18, 19, 2005.

The gathering will be held at the conference centre of the Golden Eagle Entertainment Centre near Kenora, Ontario. Everyone is welcomed.

For more information or to register (no charge) e-mail: risnana@kahac.org or call (807) 543-1065 or Toll Free 1-877-224-2281.

This event is very timely with the recent press coverage concerning the settlement package being negotiated by the Assembly of First Nations with the federal government. Click here to see today's Canadian Press article, "Lump-sum payouts possible in Liberal residential schools plan" by Sue Bailey

Canada Council for the Arts launches new program for emerging Aboriginal writers

From the website: This website has been developed to provide Canadians with information and documentation resulting from the Canada-Aboriginal Peoples Roundtable and related follow-up activities to this historic event. The Canada-Aboriginal Peoples Roundtable held in Ottawa on April 19th, 2004 represented an unprecedented opportunity for members of the Federal Cabinet, Senate and House of Commons to engage with Aboriginal leaders from across the country. At the April 19th Roundtable, the Prime Minister made four key commitments: A Report on the Roundtable: Strengthening the Relationship, Canada-Aboriginal Peoples Roundtable which was released on May 20th , 2004. Sectoral discussions in six priority areas with Aboriginal groups, Provincial and Territorial governments, sectoral experts and practitioners; A Policy Retreat with members of the Cabinet Committee on Aboriginal Affairs (CCAA) Aboriginal leaders and; The development of an Aboriginal Report Card to track progress. As follow-up to the second commitment, a series of sectoral follow-up sessions has been held; these sessions included Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal experts from across the country. Sectoral session themes were: Health, Life Long Learning, Housing, Economic Opportunities, Negotiations and Accountability for Results. These sectoral follow-up sessions have been guided by a Planning Committee consisting of representatives from lead federal departments (Indian and Northern Affairs Canada, Health Canada, Industry Canada, Canada Mortgage and Housing, Treasury Board Secretariat); National Aboriginal Organizations:(Assembly of First Nations (AFN), Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami (ITK), Métis National Council (MNC), Congress of Aboriginal Peoples (CAP) and the Native Women`s Association of Canada (NWAC)); and a number of provincial and territorial governments which worked in a collaborative partnership to develop and implement each session. Important background papers developed by members of the Planning Committee in advance of the sessions, as well as independent facilitators reports on each session as well as a final report prepared by a team of session facilitators are all available electronically on this site. Members of the Planning Committee may have also drafted outcome statements and reports stemming from this process, these additional materials along with outcomes of related forums and discussions that were not designated as sectoral follow-up themes (e.g. the Environment) can be easily found by linking through the What’s New section. Documentation from these sectoral follow-up sessions may be used to help inform the future development of Aboriginal policy in Canada and will be important documents for consideration at upcoming meetings between governments and Aboriginal leaders including a Policy Retreat in the Spring of 2005 and a First Ministers Meeting with Aboriginal leaders on Aboriginal issues planned for the Fall, 2005. The documentation contained on this website does not necessarily represent the views of any government or National Aboriginal Organization. The purpose of this website is to share information related to the Canada-Aboriginal Peoples Roundtable: background papers, Facilitator's sectoral and final reports, agendas and media announcements.

See the website link below and each job that is located in Ottawa.  Deadline May 6, 2005.

Individual homepages for people living in Canada's north are becoming the communication medium of choice for many. Being able to share their own stories, pictures, news as well as participating in friends and family members' chat boxes is now an important and popular past-times for the nearly 16,000 members of the myknet.org on-line environment.

These facts are clearly demonstrated by the increasing popularity of the myknet.org on-line environment since its early beginnings over six years ago. In 1999, Dan Pellerin thought users would be interested in having their own web page, so he found an on-line script and made it available to K-Net users. Very quickly over 300 users signed up and began creating their own web pages. From there, Jesse Fiddler worked with Dan to expand the options available for users and created the present myknet.org on-line environment.

Over the past month of April, the myknet.org traffic increased once again to 101,701,089 hits from 1,204,790 visits to that server! Daily averages increased to over 40,000 visits each day resulting in nearly 3.4 hits a day!

One observer noted that on Saturday afternoon between 5 and 6 in the evening there were about 900 updates to individual pages over that 1 hour period. This fact also indicates that the number of computers in the homes is increasing dramatically as broadband services are introduced in the communities.

On April 28, Geordi, Peter, Cheryl, Darrin, Kevin and Brian met in Kenora to attend the regional municipal association session that included a presentation by Prime Minister Paul Martin. Roger Valley, Kenora Riding's MP, invited Geordi and Peter to join other supporters afterwards to meet with the Prime Minister. Geordi and Peter were able to briefly meet with the Prime Minister and present him with a letter, concept paper and DVD describing the e-Community work being done by KO in partnership with FedNor. Click here to see some photos from this event.

Earlier in the day, Brian Walmark, KORI Coordinator, attended the Prime Minister / FedNor's announcement at the Thunder Bay Regional Hospital. Click here to see the Chronicle-Journal coverage of this event - "FedNor will save us".

The package presented to the Prime Minister is now being circulated to groups involved in the Aboriginal Roundtable discussions. The following message is accompanying this material ...

These documents are being forwarded to the various organizations involved with the Aboriginal Roundtable sectoral discussions. Please feel free to distribute this information.

There is still time to get your applications in for Oshki's Native Early Childhood Education Program that starts in September 2005. Make sure you secure your seat today. 

Two newer videos that provide additional information about some of the e-Community work that Keewaytinook Okimakanak is doing are available on-line.

1. The Keewaytinook Internet High School information video describes how KiHS is making a difference in the participating First Nations. This video was produced by Cal Kenny. Giving young people and their families a choice about where they attend high school is an important theme throughout this production. The impact that KIHS is having in these small, remote communities is also addressed. Check it out at http://streaming.knet.ca/KiHS/KiHS_300k.wmv
   
2. The latest Keewaytinook Okimakanak Telehealth (KOTH) information video describes the evaluation process and the importance of collecting this valuable information for the participating communities as well as the funding partners. George Ferreira, a PhD candidate worked with other members of the evaluation team, to produce this video. Check it out at http://streaming.knet.ca/telehealth/TH-Evaluation_300k.wmv

Additional video material about the work being done can at Keewaytinook Okimakanak is available at different locations throughout these web sites as well as under the Smart Communities link from the K-Net homepage.

The report of the founding meeting of the Research on ICTs with Aborginal communities (RICTA) cluster from this past March is now available on the RICTA website. Click here for the entire PDF copy of the report. (Research on ICT with Aboriginal Communities: Report of the founding RICTA meeting. March 11, 2005)

This report includes not only the meeting minutes but also the meeting evaluation and the biographies of RICTA members. RICTA is currently reflecting on the meeting to learn how it can keep the momentum moving forward.

Along with the report is a video description about RICTA that includes some of its founding members. Click here to view the video (requires Windows Media Player).

The Keewaytinook Okimakanak Research Institute and the National Research Council (NRC) established RICTA with a grant from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council back in the fall, 2004. The SSHRC announced grants last fall to establish research clusters to identify areas of expertise where Canada can become recognized as world leaders.  One hundred and forty university researcher teams from across Canada applied for these cluster grants. KORI's application with its partner the NRC was one of only thirty proposals that was approved for funding.