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For 47-year-old Irene Flett-Redwood, going back to school as an adult was not easy, but she graduated from the Saskatchewan Indian Federated College in Regina in May 2001 with a bachelor's degree in education.

A mother of five and a proud grandmother of 10, Flett-Redwood has come a long way from a life without self-confidence and direction.

"I was afraid to try anything. I never really thought that I could do anything; mainly because of the low self-esteem that I had in myself."

Others recognized her abilities.

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A music composer derives income from five sources, one being performance royalties. The performing rights of the copyright owner are a significant part of their right to reproduce or copy their works and to control such recordings, including how such recordings will be transmitted or used.

Page 22

The plight of two Ecuadoran healers awaiting trial on Manitoulin Island, has struck a sympathetic chord with some professors and students at Laurentian University in Sudbury. Juan and Edgar Uyunkar, father and son medicine men from the Upper Amazon, were recently invited to share their cultural traditions with students in the bachelor of social work program.

About 80 spectators attended the session held in Canisius Hall, said Sharon Corbiere Johnston, an instructor in Native Human Services.

Page 22

Aboriginal health researchers will have an easier time accessing both funding and training, thanks to the creation of four new centres across the country dedicated to supporting increased Aboriginal involvement in health research.

The four new ACADRE (Aboriginal Capacity and Developmental Research Environments) centres are being funded through the Institute of Aboriginal Health, one of 13 member institutes of the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR).

Page 20

An unseasonably late snowstorm raged outside, but the ice inside Saskatoon's Hub City Curling Club on the evening of April 1 was smooth sparkling. After four days of intense competition, the 2002 National Aboriginal Curling Championship had reached its final draw, and no one was too concerned with the weather as the men's and women's finalists prepared to do battle.

Page 20

Thanks in part to the Squire brothers, the Toronto Rock are once again the National Lacrosse League champions.

Six Nations of the Grand River First Nation members Kim (Kid Rock) and Rodd (Moose) Squire, who live on the reserve in Ohsweken, Ont., are members of the pro squad that won this year's NLL title. The Squires and their teammates edged the host Albany Attack 13-12 in the league championship final staged on April 13.

Page 20

His team came up a step or two shy of a national title this year, but as far as Kelvin Sampson's peers were concerned, he was tops.

Sampson, a full-blooded Lumbee Indian, is the head coach for the University of Oklahoma Sooners men's basketball squad. After guiding the Sooners to a 31-5 record this season, he was selected as the top coach in the NCAA Division 1 ranks. He was presented with the National Association of Basketball Coaches (NABC) coach-of-the-year award.

Page 19

Sometimes it only takes 30 seconds for your life to change.

When Travis Youngchief, 31, attended a powwow almost three years ago in Frog Lake, Alta., he had no idea his life would go in a new direction.

As he watched young boy, Sundance Wapass, who was about seven years old at the time, celebrate his Aboriginal culture by participating in the event, Youngchief felt a spark inside his own spirit.

"I only caught him dancing for about 30 seconds," said Youngchief, but it was all the time he needed. "He inspired me."

Page 17

Nuvisavik -the place where we weave

Edited by Maria Von Finckenstein

Canadian Museum of Civilization/

McGill-Queen's University Press

202 pages (sc) $45.00

For more than three decades, artists and weavers in Pangnirtung on Baffin Island have been working together to create colorful tapestries that capture images of traditional Inuit life, preserving them for future generations. Now the images of those tapestries have been captured in a book.

Page 16

Canada Book Day was celebrated on April 23, and Windspeaker would like to join in the celebration of the printed word and present some books that have arrived, some recently, some not so recently, through our door for review.

We've had the opportunity to do some larger work on a few of them, as you've noticed in our coverage this month, but these are a few we haven't been able to get to for a full accounting. We hope you find something among them that piques your interest enough to find you choosing to spend your quiet moments with a good book.