Media.Knet.Ca

Barb Wong, Keewaytinook Okimakanak's SchoolNet Program Administrator and Craig Hardy, Keewaytinook Internet High School Teacher joined other educators from across the province at Kenjgewin Teg Educational Institute's conference in Sudbury on March 20 and 21. The agenda for the eLearning Conference - "Learn Today For Tomorrow" listed a number of resource people and topics that supported KTEI efforts to work on a strategic plan for introducing elearning in First Nations across the region.

Barb set up the Keewaytinook Okimakanak information booth and met with First Nation school reps to complete their school's ICT SchoolNet survey. She was able to discuss various connectivity solutions and ICT needs with the people attending the gathering.

Craig Hardy conducted a workshop about the Keewaytinook Internet High School and his teaching experience working with the students in the Fort William First Nation classroom.

This week's issue of Wawatay contains stories about:

• How telehealth is making a difference in Fort Severn First Nation, featuring Jessie Matthews, Fort Severn's Telehealth Coordinator sharing information about her experience with these new communication tools along with Gibbet Stevens, KO's Telehealth Scheduler sharing about some of the services available through this service.
• Making the connections work at both ends, where Angus Miles, Fort Severn's Technician talks about his work and Adi Linden, K-Net's Network Systems Analyst describes some of the challenges involved in maintaining the network.
• As well, Industry Canada's First Nations SchoolNet announcement about KO becoming Ontario's Regional Management Organization is also covered on this issue's advertorial.

Be sure to check out the stories on-line or pick up this week's issue of Wawatay to read these articles.

MyKnet.org now reaches over 100,000 hits per day average based on March logs.

This K-Net service had its humble beginnings back in 1998 when Dan Pellerin introduced a site for individuals to start creating their own web site. Young people atttending First Nation schools, who were the primary K-Net target audience, quickly learned how to use the available tools to produce simple pages sharing information about themselves.

Today, Jesse Fiddler, K-Net's Multi-media Manager, has taken on the task of maintaining and developing this resource. Additional open source html production tools are being identified and added to the myknet.org toolkit. Many of the individuals producing and maintaining their own sites are using a variety of on-line services to create their own on-line environment that defines who they are.

Do check out myknet.org to see the latest changes to the sites, search for a friend's site or to see the most popular sites and the efforts of others to surpass Angie Morris' visits (early on when the hits countered was introduced, Angie figured out how not to reset the hits counter everytime she updated her page so she had an advance on everyone else).

EMPL0YMENT OPPORTUNITY

Keewaytinook Okimakanak/Northern Chiefs Council is looking for a Home Care Nurse for the Home & Community Care Program

This is a 16-hour work week position, salary dependant on qualifications and work experience. This position will commence April 22, 2003. The Home Care Nurse will report to the Home and Community Care Nurse Supervisor and the Keewaytinook Okimakanak Director of Health Services.

The ideal Candidate will possess:

• Good standing with the College of Nurses of Ontario.
• 2 years experience delivering nursing care in the home or community setting preferred.
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills.
• Ability to work as a team member as well as independently.
• Knowledge of the Keewaytinook Okimakanak communities.
• Skills and experience in adult education training.
• Ability to prepare and submit reports.
• Basic computer skills.
• Experience nursing in remote First Nation communities would be desirable.
• Able to speak Oji-Cree, but not necessary.

Please forward: Resume, cover letter and three references to:

Orpah McKenzie, Director of Health Services or
Marney Dodic, Home and Community Care Nurse Supervisor
Keewaytinook Okimakanak Tribal Council
Box 340
Balmertown, ON
P0V 1C0

Email: orpahmckenzie@knet.ca  or marneydodic@knet.ca  

Pikangikum is hosting a mens invitational hockey tournament april 10 -13.

$900 entry fee

For more information call:

• Randy 773 1093 (w)
• Don Quill 773 5578 (w)
• Stephen Turtle 773 5578

www.SandyLake.FirstNation.ca has had a loyal following since our launch in early December 2002. In late February, after only 3 months, the website surpassed 100,000 hits!

In the beginning, the purpose of the website was to present the community in a way that was positive and informative while at the same time educational for both the community members and visitors alike.  Keeping true to this ethic, our website features an online Photogallery where we attempt to rekindle the memories of years past by posting pictures of our community and its people throughout our history.  The pictures are donated from personal collections found within and/or outside the community which contributes to the overall diversity of the web site.

Our website has grown to also include such memorable favorites as, the Rez Pez recipes, and the ever popular Joke-Sah-Weh corner.  We are constantly updating our community news, information, and events.  Please visit us...

                                                                           --Admin--

                                                       www.SandyLake.FirstNation.ca

The Aboriginal Resource Technician Program  is accepting New Intakes for September 2003 delivered via Contact North Distance Education.

Sault College of Applied Arts & Technology is accepting new applicants into the distant education Aboriginal Resource Technician Program to start in September 2003. This natural resources based program enables students from remote communities access to a post-secondary diploma in Natural Resources utilizing the Contact North's Teleconference System. The delivery of this unique program is designed for students who wish to pursue a Career in Natural Resources, but are unable to attend a Post -Secondary Institution due to distance, family and work committments.  Our program remedies those barriers, by delivering a post secondary natural resources program utilizing the Contact North Teleconference System throughout remote communities in the north. For further information and to apply to the Aborginal Resource Technician Program, please contact Sault College at 1-800-461-2260 or view our Sault College Website at http://www.saultc.on.ca under Natural Resource Programs.

The International Virtual Forum entitled "ICT in rural areas: Pending challenges" is taking place on-line from March 17 to April 1 2003. Everyone is invited to participate in the various on-line discussion forums to share their thoughts, stories, best practices and lessons learned. Keewaytinook Okimakanak staff produced a paper entitled "Socio-Economic Impact of ICT in Remote First Nations" for Session 6 scheduled for March 31 to April 1 containing some of the work being done in the KO First Nations. Do register and share your stories within this international environment.

"The development and use of ICTs can hopefully help different cultures to become better integrated, improve government throughout the world and lead to greater respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms. Nonetheless, although there have already been numerous national and international initiatives taken to reduce the digital divide in many different parts of the world, these need to be properly analyzed in order to ensure that the necessary resources and investment are made available for future projects in such a way as to benefit "global" society.

New or emergent technologies have presented a challenge not only for regulating bodies and the State in general but also for society as whole. Technology advances by leaps and bounds, setting us ever more demanding challenges.

It is for these reasons that OSIPTEL (the Peruvian Telecommunications Regulatory Agency), together with REGULATEL, (the Latin American Forum of Regulatory Agencies) have decided to organize this International Virtual Forum: "ICT's in rural areas: The pending challenges" creating a space for dialog between the business sector, public institutions, the academic world and the civil society in general, in order to share experiences and opportunities for contributing to the economic and social development of ICT's in rural areas of developing countries."

Cultural Survival has three major goals:
1. Spread awareness and provide formal documentation of the myriad challenges confronting indigenous peoples around the world.
2. Engage and educate the next generation about the critical issues facing indigenous peoples and their importance within the global community.
3. Provide empowerment tools that support indigenous efforts to effectively resist cultural degradation and threats to their sovereignty.

It publishes the Indigenous Weekly News that everyone is invited to subscribe to by sending an e-mail message to join-weekly_indigenous_news@lyris.cs.org. Their quarterly journal, Cultural Survival Quarterly (CSQ), contains articles that "explore the interconnected issues that affect indigenous and ethnic minority communities, including environmental destruction, land rights, sustainable development, and cultural preservation."

"All over the world, governments were seeking to extract resources from areas that had not hitherto been developed and, in the process, were mistreating their indigenous inhabitants. What should be done about this? What could be done about this? Cultural Survival was founded to try to answer these questions and to work for the solutions developed by the nascent indigenous and pro-indigenous movements."

This week saw 32 hockey teams from First Nations across the Sioux Lookout Zone coming into Sioux Lookout to play their neighbouring communities. The web site (http://firstnationshockey.ca) hosted by Shibogama Technical Services is proving to be a popular place for fans to leave their congratulations for teams and players. Today the A and B side semi-finals and finals will determine who comes away as this year's champions.

CONGRATULATIONS to KINGFISHER LAKE for winning the A-side championship!!

Everyone who plays in this tournament comes away as champions because of the work and determination it takes to participate. Every year the caliber of hockey is improving with more young people having more access to the recreational facilities they need to properly prepare for this tournament. Hopefully in the next few years more First Nations across the region will be able to construct their own arenas and host their own tournaments (several are already doing this).