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Senator Thelma Chalifoux is concerned that Metis-specific programs are being unfairly shut down and she plans to address the federal Liberal Party's national caucus on the issue.

Chalifoux, who is the Chairperson of the Senate Committee on Aboriginal People, personally involved herself when she heard that the Prince George Awasisak Cultural Development Program in British Columbia had been shut down by Health Canada on June 1.

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While newly-elected Assembly of First Nations Grand Chief Matthew Coon Come travels across the country and beyond in the early days of his mandate, a six-member transition team is at work in Ottawa re-vamping the structure of the national First Nations political organization.

In his first month in office, Coon Come made stops in Alberta, Saskatchewan, the Northwest Territories, British Columbia and Atlantic Canada. He spoke to the United Nations permanent forum in New York.

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An award-winning documentary telling the story of four Lakota families living on the Pine Ridge Indian reservation in South Dakota will be shown on PBS in November.

"Homeland" is a one-hour documentary which follows the families through three years of their lives as they try to overcome the challenges inherent in reservation life. On Pine Ridge, homelessness is at 30 per cent, unemployment is at 85 per cent, and 60 per cent of residents live in substandard housing.

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Art Zoccole, a long time activist and leader in the Aboriginal HIV/AIDS movement, has been appointed as executive director of the Canadian Aboriginal AIDS Network.

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A new program has been launched to bring culturally-relevant science education programs to Aboriginal communities across the country.

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What's a school library without any books?

Phil Cesario and his co-workers at P.M. Associates Ltd. considered the dilemma of the new Sakastew School on Mathias Colomb Cree Nation, and came up with an answer: send the school nine crates of used books, and $3,000 worth of new ones.

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For the first time in a 27 year history, the Native Theatre School (NTS) left its Toronto operations to establish a permanent summer program in the West.

The four-week program, dubbed a 'summer intensive' by artistic director Carol Greyeyes, was not only a resounding success. It has fulfilled the original mandate of Cree founder James Buller, who envisioned a truly national theatre school that would give First Nation people a strong voice in the arts.

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Eight Aboriginal students from across the country have been recognized by Xerox Canada, receiving scholarships through the company's Aboriginal Scholarship program. This year's winners were announced Sept. 12 at a press conference held at the provincial museum in Edmonton.

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Sixty-thousand people from 120 different communities took to the streets Sunday, Sept. 24, taking part in AIDS Walk Canada 2000.

For the first time since the annual walk was begun in 1995, this year's event included participating communities from all provinces and territories. Included among them were several Aboriginal communities.

Twenty-one Inuit communities across the Arctic held events as part of this year's AIDS Walk, as did 19 First Nations communities in Saskatchewan, and 25 First Nations communities in Atlantic Canada.

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Right now in Canada, there are four Aboriginal people waiting to find compatible donors to provide them with bone marrow for a much needed transplant. One of them is Robert L'Hirondelle.

Robert is seven years old, and was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia four years ago. After undergoing two-and-a-half years of chemotherapy, Robert's cancer went into remission. However, during a routine test in June, it was discovered the cancer had returned.