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Drive along Highway 509, southwest of Lethbridge, on a sunny day in June and the air smells sweet with the fragrance of thousands of acres of bright yellow canola. Tall plumes of timothy grass wave in the breeze. For as far as the eye can see, high-tech irrigation pivots spray rainbow-tinged showers of water on the land. This is the Blood Tribe

Agricultural Project, recipient of the 1998 Council for the Advancement of Native Development Officers (CANDO) Recognition Award, and a source of pride and economic benefits for the Blood community.

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A unique First Nations business is breaking new ground in the field of telemarketing communications because of its ability to go where other call centre services might not - First Nation communities.

The Saskatchewan Indian Institute of Technologies Call Centre is based on the Asimakaniseekan Askiy reserve and offers it's services on a national level, but primarily in Saskatchewan, in the First Nation languages of Cree, Dene, and Saulteaux.

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For a young organization like the Khowutzun Development Corporation, recognition for successfully creating jobs in the community is encouraging. So when the group won the Council for the Advancement of Native Development Officers 1998 recognition award in late November, it was a boost to morale.

Unemployment on Vancouver Island is a problem and unemployment of Cowichan members is of particular concern, said Myles McLeod, new general manager of Khowutzun Development Corporation.

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It doesn't take much to fall head over heels for Campbell River. Though a busy little place, it's not unusual to have members of the local deer population wander into your back yard to nibble on the vegetation. Time well spent is to surrender the evening watching men in hip boots slip into the Queen Charlotte Strait to do some fly fishing, or watch a cruise ship sail into the night.

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Ooskipikwa is a program geared for university students wanting to work with Aboriginal agencies based on reserves or in Aboriginal communities. The name is derived from a Cree word meaning new bud or growth and is used metaphorically to describe a student consultant who brings new ideas and change to an Alberta Native community. The program was formally known as the Indian Management Assistance Program.

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According to Statistics Canada, one in every eight woman will experience abuse, and that statistic is on the increase. Domestic abuse affects all cultures, including the Aboriginal community.

A program called Change of Seasons, supported by the Attorney General Corrections Branch, First Nations Wellness Society, Ministry of Health (Aboriginal Health Policy Branch) and the Squamish Nation of British Columbia, is available to men in North Vancouver who want to end their own abusive behavior.

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Trent University, nestled in the heart of ancestral Iroquois-Anishinabe lands in southern Ontario, has always been a special place for Aboriginal peoples in Canada.

As the home of the first Native Studies department in Canada, Trent will be celebrating 30 years of ground-breaking education with the addition a new Ph.D. program - one of the first of its kind in Canada - which will be welcoming four new doctoral candidates in September.

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Thanks to a Canadian automotive giant, some First Nations students will be among those who receive major scholarship funding at the University of Toronto.

General Motors of Canada announced in early January that it was pledging $2 million to the university to help women, physically challenged and First Nations students from Ontario.

Both the university and the Ontario government also decided to follow in GM's footsteps, pledging $1.65 million each, thus creating a total of more than $5 million in scholarship funding.

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Statistics compiled by the World Health Organization show that 2.3 million people died from HIV/AIDS during 1997 and 5.8 million adults and children were newly infected during that same 12-month period.

Those are the most recent figures available from the United Nations' global HIV/AIDS and Sexually Transmitted Disease Surveillance team.

The team reports that child deaths - deaths of innocents caused by tragic mistakes or foolish risks taken by their parents - number close to 500,000 in that year.

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In her younger years, Violet Sampere's life was filled with tragedy, hardship, and despair. In her later years, she is experiencing a sense of peace and fulfillment in her role as an Elder.

Violet was born in 1925 in the remote village of Kitseukla in northern British Columbia. Raised by a blind mother, Violet had to work hard in her early life. She did not attend school and taught herself to read when she was an adult.