Category: column

First Nation youth representatives are letting the world know that Indigenous people are ready to stand up and protect the land. Keira Spence, Kohen Mattinas and Ryan Fleming are attending the United Nations Expert Mechanism on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples in Switzerland. This special gathering is holding its 19th session from 13 to 17 July 2026 at the Palais des Nations in Geneva.

The UN Expert Mechanism on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (EMRIP) was established to assist member UN states and indigenous communities in implementing the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP). It carries out this mission through research studies, country engagements and through annual forums every July. The annual July event provides a platform for Indigenous representatives, advocates and state governments to meet, debate and voice human rights concerns directly to the United Nations.

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

https://www.wawataynews.ca/blogs-columns/first-nation-youth-are-making-world-listen

My home community of Attawapiskat First Nation is celebrating the annual graduations of students from Kattawapiskak Elementary School and Vezina Secondary School. These are proud moments for our community as families get to celebrate their children.

These moments are especially important for our First Nation communities, as education in my parents’ time was a traumatic event that affected the lives of young people. My parents, Marius and Susan Kataquapit, both attended residential school as children and it was terrible for them and their families. Their parents were forced to give up their young ones for the entire year in order to go to school and the children were separated from their families and communities. For the government, it was a form of assimilation that was designed to remove the indigenous culture from a child’s life and force them to integrate into European Canadian society. Unfortunately, that kind of education only produced fear, hopelessness and trauma. It is also a matter of public record now that these residential schools were havens of abuse of all kinds that deeply and negatively traumatized an entire generation of Indigenous people.

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

https://www.wawataynews.ca/blogs-columns/celebrating-graduates-attawapiskat

I was happy to see my nieces and nephews in Attawapiskat taking the opportunity to learn about the traditional practice of making Nah-mesh-tek, the Cree word for preserving and smoking geese. This is a food preparation method that our people in the north have used for thousands of years and it is an essential way to gather and store large stocks of food for the long term.

My nephew Orion Kataquapit spent the past week learning from his aunt, my older sister, Janie Wesley, in her permanent Meegwam, our Cree word for what is commonly known as a teepee. I was happy to hear from my sister that she also took time to teach our nieces, Kaitlyn and Julie Kataquapit, the practice of smoking geese. Janie said she was happy to teach and show others how to do all this. Our mom, Susan Kataquapit, had taught all of us how to do this work when we were children. Janie added that our grandmother Louise Paulmartin/Rose, our mom’s mother, had also taken extra time to give her these skills years ago.

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

https://www.wawataynews.ca/blogs-columns/learning-make-nah-mesh-tek

Maachestan, the Cree word for the annual spring river ice breakup, is happening all along the James Bay coast. This is a very important time of year for remote communities along the coast.

Over the past few weeks, my family has been sharing regular reports of what is happening on the Attawapiskat River. I was happy to hear them all talk about this time of year as it reminded me of hearing my parents, Marius and Susan Kataquapit, talking and discussing Maachestan with other community members many years ago.

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

https://windspeaker.com/under-northern-sky-xavier-kataquapit/maachestan-annual-spring-ice-breakup

I was proud to see First Nation youth representing our northern homelands on the international stage this past month at the United Nations. Jeronimo Kataquapit, Ramon Kataquapit, and Kohen Mattinas participated in the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues (UNPFII) Twenty-Fifth Session, held at the United Nations headquarters in New York from April 20 to May 1, 2026. This year, the event brought together more than 1,000 participants, including Indigenous peoples and political representatives of member states and United Nations entities.

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

https://www.wawataynews.ca/blogs-columns/first-nation-youth-speak-united-nations

I recently took a long walk out on a beautiful spring day. The weather was pleasant, the sun was bright, and the air was brisk and cool. I could still feel the sting of winter hanging on and to confirm that feeling, I could hear it from the song of a familiar bird this time of year. The Chickadee was singing its familiar ‘tee-tee’ song. My Kookoom, my grandmother, often pointed out to us children that this little bird was actually calling out the name of the season. The bird changes its tune depending on the weather. When winter is still lingering with cold winds, the Chickadee will continue its plain one-tone ‘tee-tee’ song. As soon as it senses that warmer weather is on the way, it will change its tune to a two-note song ‘NEE-pin, NEE-pin’. Kookoom noted that this song is actually the name of the season in our Inineemoon, our Cree language. The bird is actually calling out Neepin, the Cree word for spring. 

https://www.northernnews.ca/opinion/the-birds-are-calling-for-spring

When I was a boy growing up in my home community of Attawapiskat on the James Bay coast, I was deathly afraid of looking at the full moon.

I grew up in a very traditional Cree environment in my home community of Attawapiskat in northern Ontario. In the 1980s, my family and I only spoke Inineemoon or ‘James Bay Cree’ because it was the language our parents and grandparents spoke.

The language and the world my parents and grandparents raised us in was very different from those in the rest of Canada. Storytelling was very important to our parents and grandparents and many of these stories were told in humorous or frightening ways to make them memorable.

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

https://www.windspeaker.com/under-northern-sky-xavier-kataquapit/chikabesh-speaks-tapiskapeesim-night-sun

I was happy to see our First Nation youth continue to speak out against proposed mining development in the far north in the so-called Ring of Fire region.

These past few weeks, it was good to see Jeronimo Kataquapit, the founder of the ‘Here We Stand – Call To Action’, continue his fight against proposed mining developments near the Attawapiskat River in the Ring of Fire mining region. I was proud to see him stand with his cousin Ramon Kataquapit, co-founder of Okiniwak, a national youth-led movement uniting First Nations youth to advocate for equity and equality.

It was encouraging to watch and listen to the events they held this past week, which showed that they are present and want to be heard. They made an appearance in Toronto outside of the world-famous Prospectors & Developers Association of Canada (PDAC) annual convention which was held in the city in the first week of March. It was important for these young First Nation advocates and protectors of the land to make themselves known at this prestigious mining conference which brings together billion-dollar companies, investors and professionals in the industry.

…. to read the story, please click on the link below

https://www.wawataynews.ca/blogs-columns/first-nation-youth-fighting-land

We are all part of a great change in human civilization. Whether we know it or not, we are living through humanity’s first steps into the modern digital age.

I grew up in the 1980s in my remote home community of Attawapiskat on the James Bay coast in northern Ontario. Back then, it really felt like we lived in another world because we only had one reliable radio signal and three television channels with up-to-date news and content. Long distance phone calls were available, but everyone was constantly concerned about the cost of using a phone, so it was only reserved for the most important calls.

…. to read the story, please click on the link below

https://windspeaker.com/under-northern-sky-xavier-kataquapit/who-control-your-social-media

Winter road season has finally started again on the James Bay coast. This seasonal ice road is an important transportation route for everyone because it offers a sense of freedom, allowing people to travel away from their home communities for all kinds of activities. This is the time of year when major bingo events take place in the communities and families from nearby First Nations can travel to visit their relatives. There are also major hockey tournaments that bring people together to take part in fun and exciting events.

The winter ice road is also an opportunity for many families to access southern communities and the railway network in Moosonee to gather food items, household goods and other necessities at a more affordable price. This is also the time for individuals to search for their next major vehicle, snowmachines, ATVs or other large equipment down south, so they can more easily and affordably transport them north.

…. to read the story, please click on the link below

https://www.wawataynews.ca/blogs-columns/ice-roads-winter-freedom