Media.Knet.Ca

The Keewaytinook Okimakanak team arrived in Winnipeg and completed the set up for the upcoming Chiefs' meeting and Aboriginal Smart Fair.

Click here to see the pictures.

K-Net now has an on-line multi-media presentation about the work that has been completed under the Smart Communities project. Everyone is invited to watch and listen to the people from the Keewaytinook Okimakanak team tell their stories about the development of K-Net and the resulting Health, Education, Economic Development and Network Infrastructure applications.

You will need to download the latest version of Flash (Flash 7) to view the videos in this on-line presentation. You can get to the presentation at http://smart.knet.ca/kuhkenah_flash.html (the link to Flash 7 is available at this site)

Keewaytinook Okimakanak’s team will be sharing this information with the folks attending our Smart Fairs that are happening in each of the Keewaytinook Okimakanak First Nations as well as in Winnipeg. Everyone is invited to visit us on-line for the upcoming these Smart Fairs on Dec 10 and 11. Please visit the web site and leave a message in the Comments section located at http://smart.knet.ca/fair

Be sure to check out the credits in the flash presentation to see some of the great team players involved in creating another wonderful on-line product that I hope everyone will be able to use to encourage and support others as they develop ICT initiatives.

The print material that accompanies the videos is also being made available on-line at:

The executive summary and acknowledgements

-
http://knet.ca/documents/Summary-acknowledgements-KNet-ver.pdf - 190K - 2 pages

An Introduction to K-Net

-
http://knet.ca/documents/INTRO-KNet-ver.pdf - 657K - 8 pages

K-Net Case Study on Network Development

-
http://knet.ca/documents/NETWORK-KNet-ver.pdf - 732K - 9 pages

K-Net Case Study on Economic Development -

http://knet.ca/documents/ECON-DEV-KNet-ver.pdf - 1.1M - 9 pages

K-Net Case Study on Health

-
http://knet.ca/documents/HEALTH-KNet-ver.pdf - 1M - 8 pages

K-Net Case Study on Education

-
http://knet.ca/documents/EDUC-KNet-ver.pdf - 793K- 8 pages

Jesse Fiddler is on his way to Geneva, Switzerland to do a number of presentations and showcase the work of Keewaytinook Okimakanak First Nations. There are over 100 events scheduled to take place this week at the United Nation's World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS). Jesse is now scheduled to participated in a number of these events.

On Monday, Dec 8, Jesse will be at Local Content CyberFestival at the World Summit on the Information Society to do a presentation about the on-line work he has been creating over the past few years. This event is described as "Organized by cyberty.net, a Swiss not-for-profit association, the festival is devoted to promoting freedom of expression and content diversity in cyberspace. The use of local languages and the impact of ICT on cultural identity in local communities are its principle issues on the agenda of the Local Content CyberFestival."

Jesse will also be attending the Global Forum on Indigenous Peoples and the Information Society throughout WSIS as part of his work with First Nations SchoolNet and the Institute for Connectivity of the Americas. From their web site, this event is intended to "start a discussion process on the opportunities offered to indigenous groups through the Information Highway, strengthen a global network of stakeholders on ICT and indigenous peoples and foster partnerships, paving the way for the coming Summit in Tunis. The meeting will include the participation of indigenous groups from around the globe, gathered to discuss key topics such as access, territorial-based development, intellectual property and modern technologies, education, public-private partnerships. It is intended that the meeting will increase the visibility of best indigenous practices in the world, transfer knowledge and know-how, while at the same time raising key issues for policy-makers worldwide."

On Wednesday and Thursday afternoons, Jesse will be on hand at the Canadian Pavilion to coordinate the presentations on Indigenous e-Culture (Wed) and e-Learning (Thurs) with live video conferencing connections between Geneva, the KO Smart Fair in Winnipeg and First Nation sites across Canada. The Communications Research Centre (CRC) is coordinating these live video conferencing connections. They are decribing this event as a means "to advancing R&D on the technologies that form the basis of new and emerging telecommunications systems across Canada. The emphasis is to develop and demonstrate how technologies can work together to form cost-effective and reliable telecommunications networks, serving all of Canada, especially the remote and underserved areas."

Broken Wings

(For those who survived the Residential School System or for those who need to find a way to heal)

A fine day for a child to rise with the sun, trees, wind, warmth from the sun rays and most of all with the Migisis (eagle).

One day, a little child rose from their sleep early in the morning and noticed the eagle soaring in the distance and pictured flying with the eagle along side it. Migisi said to the child, "how are you "Little One", are you going to fly with me"?

The "Little One" replied "Migisi I will fly with you today and the rest of time". The "Little One" flew with the great Migisi, behind it. Migisi looked behind and noticed the "Little One" was missing.

Wondering where the "Little One" was the great majestic Migisi kept flying on its own. Migisi felt something had happened to the "Little One", it felt very unhappy and very sad. Migisi turned around to search for the "Little One". Migisi started a journey for the lost "Little One" - a journey of sadness, heartache, sorrow, rage, anger, broken hearts but most important of all, a journey to heal the broken spirit and hope for the "Little One"….

It was on a very warm autumn morning when a young child woke up and decided to play early. The young one noticed the little birds playing and flying with happiness so the young one sat on the stairs outside to admire the little birds. The little birds got bolder and were landing beside the young one. One of them was brave enough to land on top of its head. The little one did not move or breathe and slowly tried to reach up and grab the little bird but the little bird flew away. This is how the little ones portray the world around them - a world of innocence, happiness and full of energy and joy.

On that day the "Little One’s" world was turned upside down. The young one found out early that the world was not a very happy place to live. The "Little One" found a very harsh and degrading environment different from the one he shared with his parents, brothers and sisters that were left behind.

"Little One" could not figure out what was right any more. All it knew was violence, hate, rage and abuse beyond that which any parent could imagine for their six, seven or eight year old child. This went on and on, day after day, up to a point where the "Little One" did not even care about family, tradition, language and most of all family values. Somewhere deep down the young one can still feel something inside, something that was missing.

Every night before he went sleep, the "Little One" would slow down wondering if there was someone out there or if there was something missing. But "Little One" just stuffed it back inside its soul.

The "Little One" does not cry anymore and will not cry when it is punished for something it did not do. It will not feel anymore and will lose all sense of direction and reality. Through the eyes of the "Little One" there is no happiness and joy only to keep on fighting and survive.

One day they told the "Little One" it is time for you to go home and it wondered what’s home. Suddenly, the "Little One" was in a different surrounding, a place it did not understand, a place where children were happy and being loved by big people. The "Little One" wondered what they were doing and it fought back when someone tried to get close to it. It felt they were trying to hurt the little child so the "Little One" fought back when someone tried to touch it. The little child did not want anyone close to it or even touching.

This kind of behavior went on as the "Little One" grew up to be a young person. The "Little One" was not small any more, it kept on hurting people and was very destructive. It did not respect the other people or the things around it. The "Little One" took the drink and the drugs for many years and lived a life of self-destruction and did not realize it or even cared about its own life. For the "Little One" the street, gutters, drugs and the bottle were the only way to cope from day to day. It did not understand why it was doing the things it was doing. All it knew was, it was hurting the "Little One" inside. The only thing the "Little One" can do was to drink and take the drugs to keep the hurt from coming out.

Finally, the ‘Little One" was asked what happened when it was a child and this enraged the "Little One" more. It was afraid of this man and "Little One" wanted to hurt this man. But this man kept on coming into the "Little One’s" domain, probing and going into the past in the "Little One’s" life until the "Little One" gave up fighting.

All the years, the "Little One" only knew hate and rage and it kept this inside its body destroying the very soul that kept its life alive. All the hate, destruction and the rage within was slowly coming out of the "Little One’s" body.

"Little One" has found a way to face the fears and the demons that it was afraid of. On many occasions when it was alone or into the night "Little One’s" tears would come out like a river. Learning to cry, learning to live from day to day, most of all learning to love. Little by little the "Little One" is learning how to respect and learning how to love from the heart.

It may take the "Little One" the rest of its life to learn about love and how to love from the heart. "Little One" is now ready to begin the journey of healing and to search for a reason to live and give whatever is left to give.

…….as the great Migisi journeyed into the past it found the "Little One" with Broken Wings. Migisi took care of the "Little One" until it could once again fly on its own. If you see the eagle and hear it screaming, it has found the "Little One" and will show the "Little One" its way home to start a journey of healing.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Hello:

Learning to face my problems head on, instead of hiding or running away from them, is a very powerful emotional experience to go through.

I am also on my healing journey to sobriety. I am trying to deal with my anger, hate and rage. But even at times I don't want to deal with them personally. But I now know these must be dealt with in order for me to break this destructive cycle.

I am submitting this article for others. I experienced this teaching while attending a sweatlodge ceremony with others. This is what I came up with. I had several heartbreaking moments when writing this article. I have written things here that will touch or relate to another individual. I have written about the many events that I went through growing up. Every statement that I wrote on there is for a reason.

I hope someone out there will understand some or even the whole article.

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.