Media.Knet.Ca

1st Annual Native Junior Ice Meltdowns

Wacheaye, Booshoo,

It was a great experience for me and the 7th Generation staff to have organized a Junior Tournament. It was quite different compared to our regular tournaments that we host,  we focus on the younger kids from 4 to 16 years old.

The participating teams were:

Champions: Sandy Lake Jr Feathermen $2,500.00
Finalists: Fort William Eagles $1,000.00
Mishkeegogamang Juniors
Eabametoong Outlaws

The 2nd annual event will take place during the long weekend in the month of May 2004 . Definitely there will be several new teams that will participate next year.

Constance Lake Oji-Crees cancelled out due to the players participating at a cultural event.

Fort Severn First Nation
General Delivery
Fort Severn, Ontario
P0V 1W0

** Press Release **

May 20, 2003

It’s Official!! Nine intrepid youth from this small remote First Nation on the shores of Hudson Bay are off to challenge Canada and the world in a 21 km (13.1 m) Half Marathon. It will be the first chance for these young people to achieve their dream of competing in a national level competition, the Manitoba Marathon, on Sunday, June 15, 2003.

Rayanne Chapman (13), Hillary Gray (13), Nathan Howson (14), Stacey Howson (13), Bernadette Kabestra (13), Courtney Kakekaspan (12), Kary Kakepetum (13), Isabel Miles (15), and April Thomas (13) will be part of a large group of competitors (more than 2500 for the Half Marathon in 2002) in the 25^th anniversary running of the event (www.manitobamarathon.mb.ca/). Several adults have worked with the youth since they began their regular training last fall, but the will to succeed is theirs alone.

There are many challenges facing youth growing up in a small remote community. In addition to the isolation, young people do not have the same educational and recreational opportunities enjoyed by other youth in Canada. Those opportunities can make a huge difference, in personal development terms, when it comes to the ability to set personal goals and live a satisfying and fulfilling life. And, young people need role models, and they need to be able to test themselves against others, both inside and outside their community. These nine youth are already role models to their peers and younger children in their community.

Fort Severn (www.fortsevernfirstnation.com) is inviting others to help support these youth and give them the opportunity to achieve their dreams. Donations to the Fort Severn Team will be recognized in Fort Severn through radio announcements and on community notices concerning the youth competing in Winnipeg. Donations may be made payable to and sent to: Fort Severn First Nation, General Delivery, Fort Severn, Ontario, P0V 1W0.

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For more information, contact Rowena House @ 807.478.2517

Check out the story published in Friday, May 23 issue of Thunder Bay's Chronicle-Journal

Obituary of Joseph Jonas Quequish

Joseph Jonas Quequish was born according to the Band List on November 16, 1919.  He passed away at his home on the morning of May 17, 2003, after a long battle with cancer.  

Jonas was a trapper, hunter, and fisherman.  He truly loved his land.  He always told his children " Don't forsake your home, it is a gift from the Creator for your benefit.  Learn to value and treasure what has been given to you".  He reluctantly re-located from his ancestoral home at North Caribou Lake, to the community of Weagamow Lake in the early 1960's so that his children could go to school, and retain their treaty status.

Jonas as he was known was a leader in his home community of North Caribou Lake.  He served on the Band Council for 35 years as a councillor, and later on he served as a Band Constable.  He served his people unconditionally on the belief that he was helping to make this community a better place to live.

Jonas was predeceased by his wife Mamie in 1994, and some children that were buried at North Caribou Lake.  He leaves behind to mourn three daughters, Annie (Mike) Williams, Eva (Lou) Marano, and Margaret (George) Benson.  He also leaves to mourn a son Maio (Caroline) Quequish, and a stepson Job (Ina) Apetawakeesic.  He also leaves 27 Grandchildren, numerous Great Grandchildren, as well as a nephew Cameron Quequish, and many other dear freinds and relatives in Weagamow.

Jonas chose to remain in the community when asked if he wished to go out to the hospital.  He loved his children and grandchildren to the very end.  He held each of us in his hands, and pointed towards heaven, as if to tell us that's where he was going.  His favorite song "Jesus Loves Me" was sung for him in his final hours.

May he rest in Peace and live in the House of the Lord.

(written by Saul Williams)

Sioux Lookout, Ontario
May 16, 2003

Since the last week in April, KO staff members have travelled to different events across Ontario and Manitoba sharing information, supporting other communities and working to further the development of broadband connectivity in First Nations.

Chief John McKay, Jesse Fiddler and Brian Beaton made the trip to Ottawa to attend the Smart Communities meetings with other project teams from across the country. Pictures of these meetings can be seen at http://photos.knet.ca/SC_meeting. Jesse set up the video conferencing connections for the Industry Canada booth at the SmartCity Summit and we were able to connect with some of the First Nations during this event. As well, we worked with some of the other Smart Communities projects to connect with the folks back in their communities to show case some of the work being done across the country. Check out the picture from the trade show at http://photos.knet.ca/SmartCity_Summit.

Dan Pellerin, K-Net’s Network Manager, travelled to Thompson in Northern Manitoba to meet with community leaders from across that part of the country who are working together to put together a business case for Industry Canada’s BRAND initiative. Dan ended up on the front page of Thompson’s local newspaper for his presentation and discussions around telehealth. Thanks to Christine Penner-Polle who conducted demonstrations and provided a great explanation about the KO Telehealth work. Check out the front page story at http://photos.knet.ca/kuhkenah11/abf.

As well, John Moreau and Barb Wong made a road trip to Southern Ontario as part of their SchoolNet / RMO work, to visit a number of First Nation schools across the province in preparation for the installation of two-way satellite connections in some of these schools. Pictures of each First Nation and school are posted at http://photos.knet.ca. In total, Barb and John were able to visit fourteen different First Nations and twenty different schools during their busy trip.

As part of the FedNor funded Internet-based Training project, K-Net staff is working with Wawatay newspaper staff to develop on-line resources that the north can use in their classrooms and communities. Alvin Fiddler and Mike Dube are working to build a linux server where they hope to create an on-line library of some back issues of Wawatay.

The week of May 5 saw Les Meekis and David McKay travelling to Poplar Hill for their community ICT planning meetings. Other unfortunate events occurred that resulted in Les developing a planning tool for First Nation workers to use to report and plan their activities for the final year of the Smart Communities Demonstration project.

Dan and Adi travelled on May 5 to Pickle Lake and Mishkeegogamong for the day. They met with Pickle Lake Town Council to discuss possible connectivity solutions. While at Mish, they visited the school to take pictures of the existing connections using the DirecPC unit that will soon be replaced by a two way satellite unit until a more permanent broadband solution is installed in their community.

NORTH Network was well represented by Irene Pal who visited Balmertown and Sioux Lookout offices to meet with telehealth staff across the province. While in Sioux Lookout, Irene provided Lars and John with training in using the Remedy software for documenting and tracking network issues. As well, Irene was able to get the technicians at NORTH Network in Toronto to fix a video conferencing problem with their quality that everyone was experiencing since January of this year.

Jesse and Steven lead a three day workshop in Sioux Lookout with four staff from Seven Generations Education Institute in Fort Frances. From the training and development workshop, Seven Generations staff were able to build a Linux server, load the KO open source e-learning platform and produce a web-based e-learning environment for their institute. Check out their product at http://7generations.knet.ca  

That same week, Dan travelled to Toronto for meetings with Kativik Regional Government reps and other partners. He was accompanied on this trip by Bryan Orthner from the Smart Communities project in Northern Saskatchewan. Together they worked with John McNamara from the NORTH Network to install the new Accord bridge that will expand K-Net’s video conferencing services for network users.

On Monday May 12, representatives from RamTel came to Sioux Lookout to provide training on the installation procedures for their two way satellite systems. K-Net staff and contractors were on hand to participate in this training. As part of Industry Canada’s First Nations SchoolNet / RMO initiative, K-Net is installing 35 of these units as temporary solutions until the community develops more permanent broadband networks to serve their community members.

Finally, Dan and John joined Windigo staff member, Ernie Buswa on a trip into Cat Lake to set up their C-Band satellite dish to provide a community broadband solution once all the circuits are installed.

The final version of the "Evaluation of the Keewaytinook Okimakanak Telepsychiatry Pilot Project" dated December 21, 2002 was recently published. Keewaytinook Okimakanak now has a few bound copies of this document available but is making the publication available in a digital PDF format as well. The comprehensive evaluation was completed by the Centre for Health Services and Policy Research at Queen’s University with the principal leads in the research being Christian Keresztes (PhD, CPsych) and Ralph Shaw (MA).

The Executive Summary describes the project ....

During the period from April, 2000, through March, 2001, the Keewaytinook Okimakanak First Nations Tribal Council from Northern Ontario undertook a pilot project to provide telepsychiatry services to two of its six communities. The purpose of the pilot project and its evaluation was to assess the long-term viability of telepsychiatry as an ongoing program for First Nations communities. The evaluation undertook to assess the costs of providing the service to each of the primary stakeholders, as well as its effects on access to mental health care, the clinical process of care, health outcomes, and user satisfaction. ....

This report is divided into seven sections, a set of appendices and a bibliography of the relevant readings. Section 1 of this report has introduced the purpose of the pilot project and the broad framework and form of the evaluation.

With a brief description of Keewaytinook Okimakanak and the Nishnawbe-aski-Nation, and an overview of healthcare and mental services issues in the north, Section 2 provides context to the evaluation and will (we trust) assist the lay reader to interpret the findings, discussion, conclusions and recommendations, which follow. Section 3 undertakes to describe the Keewaytinook Okimakanak Telepsychiatry Project and the driving needs, rationale and goals which drew people to create the telepsychiatry network.

Section 4 broadly describes the two approaches used in the evaluation and specifies the questions asked to assess the pilot project.

Section 5 is a report of the cost- effectiveness analysis, describing how psychiatric service is currently being provided, how it is was provided through the telepsychiatric project, and how it might be provided through an on-going telepsychiatric programme. It addresses the impact of each on the overall healthcare resources available, including the size of their budget envelopes, expected transfers of economic burden, and relative fiscal sustainability.

Section 6 presents an analysis of the clinical service provided through the project, including an assessment of clinical outcomes resulting from the service and the clinical impact on the overall regime of mental health care of those clients who received a psychiatric consultation through the medium of video telecommunication.

Section 7 lays out the conclusions drawn from the analysis, and a set of recommendations drawn from the conclusions is presented in Section 8. Supporting documentation appears in a series of appendices to complete the report.

Fort Severn has been in a flood watch status for the last couple of days, the north end of the community has been placed on a high alert.

The river has risen about a foot each day. Some of roads leading to the coast are under water. The river is being monitored daily by our Flood coordinator Robert Thomas .

For more information visit the Fort Severn Website http://fortsevern.firstnation.ca and check out the photos.

The May 15 issue of Wawatay News contains two more news stories about the work being completed within the Kuh-ke-nah Network of Smart First Nations demonstration project. 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.

This week's articles include:

First Nation Computer Technicians Putting Skills to Work - Margaret Lawson, McDowell Lake band member and Laureen Kaminawaish, Sachigo Lake band member, share their experiences during and after the SLAAMB employment and training program delivered by K-Net Services staff.

Turning Point Offers Interesting Viewpoints, Ideas  - Mary Alice Smith describes the development and maintenance of the Turning Point web site where people from around the world share their thoughts, stories and actions.

Various newspaper articles are being scanned and stored for reference purposes in this photo gallery.

ON Friday May 16, Students at Dennis Franklin Cromarty High School (DFCHS) will be taken to Old Fort William for a day of activities.

The cultural staff commitee hopes that  students and staff will enjoy their day.

Actuivities planned during the day include:

• Competitions Crafts
• Artist Workshop
• Wild Plants tour
• Life in a wigwam program
• Bannock baking contest
• Canoe Racing
• Log Sawing
• Wild plant useage for food and medicine.

And Many more activities...

2nd Annual Native Junior Hockey Meltdowns
Fort William First Nation Arena
May 16-18 2003

• Fort William Eagles
• Sandy Lake Storm
• Mishkeegogamang Juniors
• Eabametoong Outlaws
• Constance Lake Oji-Crees

Champions: $3,500.00
Finalists: $1,000.00

15-19 years old of age

Will submit with the final results of tournament next week.
7th Generation Athletics Circle.
Thunder Bay, Ontario