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Every June 21st, thousands of Indigenous Peoples celebrate National Indigenous Peoples Day (NIPD). This is a special day to acknowledge the unique heritage, diverse cultures and outstanding achievements of First Nations, Inuit and Métis peoples in Canada. Joining in the celebrations is a wonderful way to learn more about Indigenous Peoples and cultures in your area.

June is National Indigenous History Month - a time for all Canadians - Indigenous, non-Indigenous and newcomers - to reflect upon and learn the history, sacrifices, cultures, contributions, and strength of First Nations, Inuit and Metis people. It’s important to keep in mind that First Nations, Inuit and Métis Peoples each have their own unique histories. And within each group, there are distinct histories.  

Canada is renowned for the wealth and diversity of its natural resources and has long relied on royalties from extractive industries to contribute to the gross domestic product.  

“Governments derived $22 billion annually on average from the natural resource sectors during 2012-2016. There are 418 major resource projects under construction or planned over the next 10 years in Canada, worth $585 billion in investment.” [1]

Agility, strength, balance, reflexes, hand-eye coordination, accuracy, strategy, intuition, patience. These are skills Indigenous hunters and fishermen relied on to feed their communities. And those skills were learned at an early age through games and maintained throughout adulthood through play.

In August 2018, the federal government announced it would declare a federal statutory holiday to mark the legacy of the residential school system. The date and name of the proposed holiday to be chosen in collaboration with Indigenous Peoples.

In declaring a federal statutory holiday to honour the survivors, their families, and communities the federal government will be fulfilling #80 of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada’s 94 calls to action:

Contributed by: Wedlidi Speck

Edwin Cook was born in Alert Bay, the home of the Namgis First Nations in 1897. He was the fifth of 16 children born to Jane and Stephen Cook. Jane was a noble woman from the Kwaguł tribe and Stephen was thunderbird clan from the Namgis.

It has been over three years (June 2, 2015) now since the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) of Canada released its summary report and 94 calls to action for reconciliation. Testimony gathered during a six-year period from over 7,000 survivors of the residential school system, forms the basis of the report.The calls to action (CTAs) targeted key institutionsincluding child welfare, health, justice, education, and business.

There are more and more articles in the news about the value of Indigenous traditional knowledge being taken into account in climate change studies, environmental assessments, wildlife management, plant species’ studies. That has not always been the case. Historically, traditional ecological knowledge was largely ignored by western ecological science practitioners.

In this article, we take a look at the many factors that had to be in place to support recognition of Indigenous traditional knowledge (ITK) from obscurity to being considered a valuable asset in environmental studies. At the time of this writing, May 2018, it is still not mandatory in the environmental assessment process.

“There used to be millions of us. Although there were no population counts, best estimates suggest that there were at least 40 million of us in the Western Hemisphere in 1491. In 1542, Las Casa, the first Spaniard to make a population guess said, “it looked as if God had placed all of or the greater part of humanity in these countries.”

To celebrate National Aboriginal Day on June 21 we have compiled a list of 21+ important Indigenous people from all walks of life. It is a random list of inspirational Indigenous leaders, artists, activists, journalists, veterans, musicians, comedians, authors, documentarians, athletes and “just plain folk” whose determination, and commitment to their passion and beliefs have, and continue to, improve Canada’s culture and social wellness. This is by no means a complete list - that would take a lifetime to compile - it is however a compilation of names that should, in this era of reconciliation, be familiar household names.