Category: column

When I first met my partner Mike’s mom Emily McGrath so many years ago I was immediately struck by how open and kind she was. Everyone knew her as Emmy and she reminded me so much of all the Elders I had grow up with in my family. I was a soft spoken Cree from the James Bay coast when I first got to know her. Life was intimidating for me when I first started to live and work as a writer away from my home community but Emmy made sure I was always safe, comfortable and looked after. I owe a lot of my transition to a new life to her.

…. to read the full column, please click on the link below

https://www.wawataynews.ca/blogs-columns/emmy%E2%80%99s-chocolate-cake-therapy

Here we are in a new year and hoping that 2025 will be a positive experience for all of us as individuals and for our civilization on planet earth. If I did a full review of how things went over the past year it just might be a little depressing but it is good to face reality.

…. to read the full column, please click on the link below

https://wawataynews.ca/blogs-columns/welcome-2025

Here we are in a new year and hoping that 2025 will be a positive experience for all of us as individuals and for our civilization on planet earth. If I did a full review of how things went over the past year it just might be a little depressing, but it is good to face reality. 

…. to read the full column, please click on the link below

https://www.northernnews.ca/opinion/hopefully-2025-is-going-to-be-a-year-of-positive-change

When I was a teenager attending high school in Timmins in the early 1990s people from the James Bay coast were just starting to get accustomed to the modern way of life in the south. There were not a lot of people who had drivers licenses and there were even less people who owned their own vehicles. It was a very special thing to see someone from the James Bay coast driving a vehicle and even more so if they owned the car or truck they were in.

…. to read the full column, please click on the link below

https://wawataynews.ca/blogs-columns/live-drive-another-day

I’m dedicating this column to my late brother Philip Kataquapit who passed away on Christmas Day in 1990 at the age of 16.

Philip was a very charismatic character. Everyone loved him and wanted to be around him. I always felt that he was a great combination of so many characters in our family all rolled up in one person. He was handsome, slender and tall like the men in mom’s side of the family. He was exciting, quick witted, funny and ready to laugh like dad’s side of the family.

…. to read the full column, please click on the link below

https://www.wawataynews.ca/blogs-columns/my-brother-philip

I’m dedicating this column to my late brother Philip Kataquapit who passed away on Christmas Day in 1990 at the age of 16.

Philip was a very charismatic character. Everyone loved him and wanted to be around him. I always felt that he was a great combination of so many characters in our family all rolled up in one person. He was handsome, slender and tall like the men in mom’s side of the family. He was exciting, quick witted, funny and ready to laugh like dad’s side of the family.

…. to read the full column, please click on the link below

https://www.timminspress.com/opinion/for-my-brother-philip

I was raised knowing many people in my circle of family and friends who have had to deal with troubles and problems that they had no control over. As I grew up in my home community of Attawapiskat on the James Bay coast, tragedy and trauma just seemed be a normal part of life for everyone.

…. to read the full column, please click on the link below

https://www.wawataynews.ca/blogs-columns/we-need-do-more

Please scroll to the bottom of this post to see photos of the veterans from my column.

Every year at this time myself and my partner Mike have to deal with the devastating losses our families have had to live with due to war. The November 11 Remembrance Day commemoration has always been a day of great sadness in remembering the veterans of the First World War and the Second World War as well as other wars. Those memories have been compounded with more sad truths through the research we have been doing over the past few years. We are working on media projects concerning the two world wars and some of our discoveries have been shocking.

…. to read the full column, please click on the link below

https://www.wawataynews.ca/blogs-columns/remembering-war-honestly

My family and my home community of Attawapiskat on the James Bay coast has always enjoyed Halloween. The idea of the whole thing just perfectly fits into a lot of our traditions of scary stories, spirits, other worldly beings and monsters that are part of the legends that our parents and Elders taught us. The whole idea of Halloween celebrations being just a holiday for children and to have fun was also something that my parents and many of our Elders thoroughly enjoyed.

…. to read the full column, please click on the link below

https://www.wawataynews.ca/blogs-columns/halloween-very-scary-year

I’ve been trying to catch a glimpse of the Wawatay lately. Wawatay is the Cree word that describes the northern lights or Aurora Borealis. I use an app on my phone called My Aurora Forecast these days to keep track of the lights but I never seem to have much luck. When the Wawatay are out, there are clouds blocking my view or I am in the wrong place at the wrong time. Most times, the Wawatay are overhead but they are just too faint to be seen because of the all the light pollution surrounding me. To see them it takes time and it is something that requires patience and persistence. When I get my alerts, I find that I have to spend hours in the dark, late into the night and into the early morning in order to catch a glimpse of these amazing lights.

…. to read the full column, please click on the link below

https://www.wawataynews.ca/blogs-columns/wawatay-and-spirits-sky