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Timmins' Metis Nation council has 10 new faces on its board as a result of an election Sept. 16, and the board is already planning an expansion to its premises.

New president Nicole Bond said the first priority of the council is to get board training for all new members on the team. The next step is to get a larger building.

"We are looking at purchasing (a building) . . . we're hoping to get a building big enough to suit everybody's program. . . . Right now where we're renting would be difficult to have any other programs come in at this time," she said.

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Casino Rama has a new attraction to entertain and educate visitors. An eight-minute multimedia show inside the resort's grand rotunda shows an ancient civilization through the special effects of sound, video, sculpture, fiber-optic lighting. It is infused with First Nations symbolism.

The show was designed and produced by Lester Creative Inc. of California, which specializes in developing technical shows and themed attractions that are dramatic and technically advanced.

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A book about famous Native long-distance runner Tom Longboat has won a national contest.

The book, titled The Man Who Ran Faster Than Everyone: The Story Of Tom Longboat, was written by Jack Batten of Toronto.

Last month, Batten's latest work was announced as the winner of the Norma Fleck Award, presented annually to the best Canadian non-fiction children's book.

Besides the honor of winning the award, Batten was thrilled with the cheque that went with it.

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Chief Roy Michano of the Pic River First Nation has spent the last 22 years of his life working towards establishing a better way of life for the people around Marathon on Lake Superior's north shore. Where once there was only despondency and despair, today there is hope and a bright economic future, and Roy Michano has been a major factor in that change.

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When most people think about maps, they probably think about road maps they can buy at gas stations that are hard to fold back up once they're done with them. But when Wade Cachagee thinks about maps, he's thinking about something more than a piece of folded paper; he's thinking of an interactive tool that can be designed to meet the needs of almost any user.

Cachagee is co-founder and president of Cree-Tech Inc., a company that provides geographic information systems (GIS) services to a wide range of clients.

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Members of the Wikwemikong parent council have called upon the youth of this Manitoulin Island community to exert a positive influence upon each other. In a youth issues gathering held at Wasse-Abin High School Sept. 18, the students were urged to make healthy choices in their teen years.

A panel of social service workers presented tips on "helping friends make good choices." Parent council representatives Lloyd McGregor, Shirley Shigwadja and Sharon Assiniwe were on hand to refer students to community agencies for information on individual concerns.

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Nestled in the natural Ontario wilderness some 250 kilometres north of Sudbury, an office of seven dedicated employees provides valuable educational and cultural material to 50 Aboriginal communities within seven tribal councils collectively known as the Nishnawbe Aski Nation (NAN). The Ojibway and Cree Cultural Centre at Timmins has 6,500 titles which it can loan to NAN members and organizations, including 50 that have been developed at the centre.

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Approximately 150 people gathered for the opening ceremony and a chance to view the new visiting centre at Petroglyphs Provincial Park, on Sept. 27. The Learning Place is the product of the collaboration of Curve Lake First Nation and Ontario Parks, along with financial contributions from the provincial and federal governments.

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Ontario is making another step towards independence for First Nation communities, and this summer the world was able to learn how.

From Aug. 26 to Sept. 4, former president of the Ontario First Nations Technical Services Corporation (OFNTSC) and current chief of the Serpent River First Nation, Earl Commanda, presented information on the Earth Keeper program at the World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg, South Africa.

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An Aboriginal centre created to sustain local Aboriginal businesses affiliated with tourism received a cash injection of $293,098 from the Ontario government last month.