As graduation ceremonies were being planned at schools throughout Eeyou Istchee, two events in early June celebrated milestones in Cree post-secondary education that leveraged online resources to enable students to advance their studies close to home.
In December 2019, a couple blissful months before a global pandemic ravaged the world, Wanda Brascoupé was discussing with philanthropy experts how to better distribute resources to both on-reserve and urban Indigenous communities. Their conversations plotted out what would later become the Indigenous Peoples Resilience Fund (IPRF).
Pikangikum First Nation, Sioux Lookout and other northwestern Ontario communities remain in crisis after water levels swamped the province throughout the month of May. As of June 3, 14 First Nations had declared a flooding emergency along with eight neighbouring municipalities. The Surface Water Monitoring Centre issued a provincial flood watch for the entirety of northwestern Ontario June 4.
While the youth population may be booming in Eeyou Istchee, some may forget that the number of Elders is growing as well. In the past, clinics employed a couple of nurses and offered limited medical supplies. Doctors visited every now and then in the 1960s and 1970s.
Youth in Waskaganish are enthusiastically taking to the sport of bouldering thanks to a new climbing wall installed as part of a two-month pilot project in the community. Eeyou Bouldering is the dream of Vincent Rodrigue and Jeanne de Metz, who both taught for two years at the local elementary school.
The Cree Nation Government has received $200 million in federal funding to create 750 units of social housing across the Cree communities.
After fighting for more than 50 years to bring electricity to its community, the Algonquin community of Kitcisakik is celebrating an agreement with Hydro-Québec that will connect it to the provincial hydroelectric grid in three or four years.
When the Cree Nation recently established a permanent forum with the Inuit of Nunavik and the Naskapis of Nuchimiyuschiiy to collaborate on common challenges, a key issue was caribou management.
As geese return to northern skies, Cree families are planning for the traditional spring hunt that is a cherished connection to the land and culture. And just as many were just arriving at their camps, Willie Shecapio Blacksmith was celebrating the first goose kill of the season April 7 in Ouje-Bougoumou.
A partnership between the Cree School Board (CSB) and John Abbott College has created a Cegep-level springboard program that allows Cree students to begin their post-secondary education from their home communities in Eeyou Istchee.
