Aniin! Interested in learning an Indigenous language? Here are two digital tools that might make it easier:
The folks over at the Miyo Wahkohtiwin Community Education Authority have taken their Online Cree Dictionary and turned it into an iPhone/iPad app, free of charge.
Not i-based but still just as cool is Isadore Toulouse’s dimdim-based Anishinabemowen (Ojibway) virtual classroom. Also free of charge, the classroom operates every Wednesday at 7:30 PM ET.
Enjoy!
[Image via creedictionary.com]
You most likely noticed some changes visiting our site today. That’s because we’ve re-launched mediaINDIGENA with a new look and a new logo.
The logo is the work of Winnipeg-based graphic designer Sébastien Aubin (Cree) and we couldn’t be happier with his vision!
We’re still working out some of the bugs so if you notice something is not working properly or looks a little wonky, please bear with us.
But if something is still out of order, don’t hesitate to send us a email. We’ll have it in working order in no time.
Hope you like our new look!
A Chat with the Grand Council Chief of the Union of Ontario Indians
On July 1, 2010, the province of Ontario implemented the Harmonized Sales Tax, combining the 8% Provincial Sales Tax and the 5% Goods and Services Tax for a single rate of 13 per cent at point of purchase. The new tax affects a number of goods and services, but most Ontarians won’t notice much of a difference when paying at the till. Ontario’s First Nations, however, have been adamantly opposed to the HST since the province announced it.
Great article in this month’s UpHere Magazine.
“Through Our Own Lens” is a look at the work of three Indigenous photographers from northern Canada, James Jerome (Dene), Peter Pitseolak (Inuit), and George “Kaash Klaõ” Johnston (Tlingit).
We’ve seen many images of our history taken by outsiders, so to see the past through our own lens is refreshing indeed.
Have a look.
[Photo via Museum of Civilization]
Aboriginal cartoonists are a rarity, and female Aboriginal cartoonists are rarer still.
So it is with much pleasure that I stumbled upon the still-young Canadian strip Moosehead Stew, by Alina Pete, “a Cree girl from Saskatchewan.”
Here’s a mini–bio I cribbed from one of her strips:
My Indian Status card says I’m from Little Pine First Nation, a reserve in Western Saskatchewan, in a valley carved by the Battle River and surrounded by hills where the prairie grass grows tall in the summer and deer graze alongside the cattle.
But I’ve never lived there. I was born in Saskatoon, a city on the South Saskatchewan River. I’ve walked every mile of that river from one side of the city to the other a thousand times over.
Prairie sage, growing wild on the hills… and saskatoon berries, struggling for sun under a city bridge. This is where I am from.
As you can see, Ms. Pete has a nice way with words. Click on the picture above for one of her more recent strips: expect links to new installments of Moosehead Stew here in future.
