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Pro Bona

Dear Tuma:

I have a question for you. Can you help me with it? A couple years ago the chief gave out a bunch of loans through the fisheries. So, anyways, now they are saying they are going to start taking deductions off my welfare cheque. Can they do that to me?

Need All My Ration

Dear Need:

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Music Biz 101

Publicity will invariably involve interviews with the print and electronic media. Interviews can be nerve-wracking and intimidating or they can be a totally positive experience, much like a job interview. Preparation goes a long way in easing the tension. Research the program or column for the angle and style of writing or reporting the interviewer takes. Is it national, regional or local in scope? Is it broadcast live or live to tape? The pressure is on if it is a live show. If not, when will it air?

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F. Scott Fitzgerald once wrote "The Rich are different from you and I," to which everybody usually responds, "Yeah, they got more money." On a similar theme, it's been my Ojibway-tainted observation over the years that middle-class white people are different from you and I-they're insane.

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Medium Rare

I suspect Aboriginal peoples get most of their news from mainstream newspapers, radio and TV, despite alternatives, such as Aboriginal newspapers and APTN News. However, with a few exceptions, I also suspect most mainstream journalists are ill-prepared, ill-equipped or unwilling to cover most Aboriginal stories.

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Thomas J. Burke made history on June 9 when he became the first Native person elected to a legislature in Atlantic Canada. Burke won the riding of Fredericton North in the New Brunswick provincial election. Burke is also the only Native lawyer practising in Fredericton.

Windspeaker: What one quality do you most value in a friend?

Thomas J. Burke: Commitment has got to be the one quality.

W: What is it that really makes you mad?

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Delby Powless is proof that size does not matter.

The diminutive 22-year-old starred for the Iroquois Nationals' entry at the inaugural world box lacrosse championships, which concluded in late May in Hamilton.

At 5-foot-7 and 170 pounds, Powless was the smallest player on his team at the world event. Yet, he managed to lead his squad in scoring and came close to being the tournament's top point-getter.

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Members of the Iroquois Nationals had mixed feelings following the conclusion of the inaugural world indoor (box) lacrosse championships.

The Native club was pleased it was able to garner the silver medal at the six-squad tournament, which concluded on May 24 at Hamilton's Copps Coliseum. But team members were not thrilled with how things transpired in the gold-medal match, in which the host Canadian squad registered a lopsided 21-4 victory.

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Whale Rider, a new film to be released this month in Canada, is inspired by the Ngati Kanohi, the Indigenous New Zealanders' creation story. Ironically, the movie is written and directed by a pakeha, a white New Zealander. Her name is Niki Caro.

"The people who owned the legend were very clear with me and with others about the fact that I was the one they were backing to tell it," the filmmaker said. "That was important to me."

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Two of the world's eminent Native documentary filmmakers from opposite sides of the globe started in much the same place.

"As I grew up I wanted to make it better for other children...I started going around to classrooms to talk directly to them" about what was happening to First Nations people, "because no one was teaching them this," said Montreal-based Alanis Obomsawin, creator of the multi-award winning Kanehsatake: 270 Years of Resistance and more than 20 other documentaries about the struggles of First Nations communities.

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A leaked internal Assembly of First Nations' memo reveals that about two-thirds of the organization's 2003-2004 core budget has been frozen until after the annual general assembly in July.

Dan Brant, the chief operating officer for the AFN, told Windspeaker the decision came directly from the minister of Indian Affairs. He also said he believes the minister is trying to influence the outcome of the election for national chief with the move.