After a long winter of curfews and quarantines, this year’s Indigenous Day celebrations felt particularly well deserved. It was also a bittersweet day, as many events across Canada took time to honour the recent discovery of unmarked graves at a Kamloops residential school.
More than 1,000 people gathered in Trois-Rivières June 2 to remember Joyce Echaquan, the Atikamekw woman who died last September while enduring racist insults and negligence in a Joliette hospital.
The discovery of the remains of 215 children on the grounds of the former Kamloops Indian Residential School sent shock waves across the country and renewed calls for accountability for the thousands of Indigenous children who never returned home.
The Cree Nation Government and the Quebec government have officially designated 23 territorial reserves in Eeyou Istchee for inclusion in the Quebec Register of Protected Areas. These selected areas were first announced in December, almost doubling the legally protected portion of the territory from 12% to 23%.
Maggie Petawabano wasn’t exactly sure when her late husband Paul first got the urge to fly. She thinks it was when, as a boy, he became curious about all the planes flying in and out of Mistissini, carrying curious new goods, then disappearing again into the sky.
A toll-free tip line in Montreal is now available to help resolve cases involving missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls (MMIWG). The Iskweu Project, an initiative of the Native Women’s Shelter of Montreal (NWSM), is promoting the number – 1-855-547-5938 – with ads on billboards and bus shelters around the city.
The Institut national de la recherche scientifique (INRS) is awarding an honorary doctorate to Édith Cloutier, who they call “a dedicated ambassador of Indigenous identity and a defender of Indigenous rights.”
Many years of supporting Indigenous women through counselling and other advocacy work has taught Dr. Cathy Richardson/Kinewesquao that sometimes a small gesture can go a long way. A few weeks ago, she started a GoFundMe crowdsourcing campaign to help “get the boot off the neck” of Indigenous mothers.
As spring brings geese back to northern skies, the Cree Trappers’ Association (CTA) is encouraging hunters to remain in Eeyou Istchee to avoid the risk of Covid-19 variants. For the second year in a row, the CTA is administering an emergency fund to help Cree families access their bush camps for Goose Break.
The Cree Nation is mourning the loss of John Mark, a former Chief of Wemindji who played a pioneering role in the establishment of many important entities in the Cree Nation, including Air Creebec.
