Community Round-Up

Welcome to the Community Round-Up, featuring the latest in news, events and learning materials from Save the Children’s National Reconciliation Program (NRP) Indigenous community partners.

Save the Children is committed to advancing reconciliation, amplifying Indigenous voices, and supporting Indigenous communities throughout Canada. Please engage, share and do your part to support.

 

News from community partners

• Constance Lake First Nation (CLFN) is located on the lands of Mamawmatawa (where four rivers meet) and is enriched with waters, flora, and fauna. CLFN’s ongoing efforts are an example of the advocacy led by Indigenous Peoples for the protection of these natural resources. Their hard work highlights the important role in the historical connection to their traditional lands that is under threat from logging, pollution, climate change, and other hazards. Visit CLFN’s website to learn more.

 

• Huge congratulations to the Fraser Region Aboriginal Friendship Centre Association on hosting a very successful 5th Annual ‘Guiding Youth Home’ Fundraising Gala! Guiding Youth Home is one of their many efforts to raise awareness around the increasing number of Indigenous youth who experience homelessness after reaching the age of majority in British Columbia.

 

• The Métis Nation of Alberta has launched their Life Promotion Guide, a youth life promotion and suicide prevention strategy that aims to support mental wellness, health, and resiliency by connecting youth with community and their identity. Read more about it here.

 

Learning materials

• For Love is a documentary that sheds more light on the overrepresentation of Indigenous children in the Canadian child welfare system. Presented by the Carrier Sekani Family Services and the filmmaker team, For Love delves into how colonization has negatively impacted Indigenous Peoples, families, and communities in Canada.

 

• Learn more about the role of Indigenous women in the early suffragist movement, for freedom and equality, by watching the short film Without a Whisper. The film features Wakerahkáhtste Louise McDonald Herne, a condoled Bear Clan Mother for the Mohawk Nation Council and founder of Oheró:kon, a long-standing partner of the National Reconciliation Program.

 

• Looking for a book to read? We recommend Di-bayn-di-zi-win (To Own Ourselves): Embodying Ojibway-Anishinabe Ways by Jerry Fontaine and Don McCaskill. You can also check out Good Minds, a First Nations family-owned business, for First Nations, Métis, and Inuit books, or Raven Reads, an Indigenous owned and women run business for Indigenous books and gifts.

 

Engagement opportunities to support Indigenous communities

• Finding Our Power Together is an Indigenous-led non-profit that supports Indigenous youth through a variety of programming. You can support them by contributing to their fundraising campaign (findingourpowertogether.com).

 

• De dwa da dehs nye>s Aboriginal Health Centre (DAHC) provides culturally safe programming and services through holistic Indigenous, Traditional and Western health care in Hamilton, Brantford, and Niagara. Contribute to their fundraising initiatives through a donation or stay up to date with their calendar of workshops and classes.

 

• Toronto Indigenous Harm Reduction (TIHR) emerged in April 2020 during the first wave of the COVID19 pandemic, in response to a massive shutdown of frontline services and a lack of basic needs for Indigenous houseless folks in the city of Toronto.

TIHR posts calls for support on social media regularly, including the one below for Allan Gardens First Nation.

 

URGENT CALL FOR SUPPORT

“As we enter Biboon, the winter time approaching solstice, a resistance and reclamation camp has made their home in Allan Gardens First Nation, Michan Miishagan. LAND BACK CHILDREN BACK

This space is and has been home to Indigenous Peoples since time. The Anishinaabek and Haudenosaunee, whose homelands are covered by the one dish one spoon wampum belt, and other diverse Indigenous Peoples have thrived in what we see now as a city park, whose spirits and its inhabitant are much older.

The Resistance and reclamation camp and sacred fire has been going for 23 days strong and is seeking urgent support.

It is a place of healing, sovereignty and gathering for many Nations and for those with no houses to return to. They serve as a hub in the midst of the park, a place for prayer and to offer tobacco to a constant sacred fire, a place for refuge, and survival supplies. Many Indigenous peers, knowledge keepers and others are taking care of the space and those who visit at this time.”

The urgent needs at this time include:

• Teepee,Fire extinguisher, cell phones, tarps, plywood, 2×4’s, Microwave, Gas, portable WiFi, sleeping bags, tents, men & women’s boots, snow pants, medicines, firewood, canopies, warm women & men’s clothing, shirts, pants, laptop, speaker, toaster, propane stovetop, flashlights, food cards, Tim cards

Monetary donations are greatly appreciated. E-transfer to morningstarmishibinijima@gmail.com