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A show and tell presentation about living on the land is what Bob Stevenson likes to do. Stevenson's presentations in survival techniques are derived from both an Aboriginal perspective and from non-Aboriginal teachings. In his school and conference presentations called "Life Skills on the Land Teachings" he emphasises respect for the land, water, plants, birds and animals.

Originally from Fort Smith, N.W.T., Stevenson, who is Metis, now lives among the Mohawks of the Akwasasne First Nation.

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Aurora College in Fort Smith, serving the western part of the Northwest Territories, has been training northerners for careers and jobs since 1969. Forty thousand students attend the Aurora campus in Inuvik, the main Thebaca campus in Fort Smith, and the Yellowknife campus. Aurora College also offers small programs in 20 other communities, such as in adult basic education and skill-based training.

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A project called the Manitoba Metis Federation Michif Language Project is now underway. It is a component of the Aboriginal Languages Initiative of the Metis National Council and it is financially supported by the Department of Canadian Heritage and the Aboriginal Language Initiative.

What is the Michif language? It is a language that combines the language of French and Cree. There is Michif-Cree, Michif-French. "La tab" in Michif means table; in French it is written as "la table."

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Edward Mesher has a dream of bringing books to the 9,000 residents of 14 Inuit villages in Nunavik, Que., north of the 55th parallel along the coast of James Bay and Hudson Bay. He even has a name for it: The People's Inuit Library. It is a project for which the Concordia University anthropology student is gradually gaining support and donations of books.

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There are no cattle, pigs or horses on Sanikiluak, the only inhabited island in Hudson Bay's Belcher Islands.

So when 12 Inuit educators from the remote island - which is now part of Nunavut, Canada's newest territory - visited Owen Sound, Ont., one of the highlights of their trip was a stop at a livestock market.

"Many of our group had never seen a cow before, so it was very exciting. Our island is flat tundra with no trees," said Lisi Kavik, vice principal of Nuivak school on the island.

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Law students from across the country gathered in Windsor on March 10 and 11 to debate the federal government's fiduciary responsibilities for Aboriginal people, during the seventh annual Aboriginal Law Moot.

The Aboriginal Law Moot competition, known as Kawaskimhon, or "speaking with knowledge." involved participants representing law schools from the universities of British Columbia, Victoria, Alberta, Calgary, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Windsor, Ottawa, Toronto, as well as York University (Osgoode Hall) and McGill.

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Beatrice Culleton Mosionier's 1983 classic of Native Canadian literature, In Search of April Raintree, is still drawing 6,000 new book buyers a year with its powerful narrative about two Metis sisters from Winnipeg. It has been translated into French, German and Dutch and has never been out of print. A revised high school edition appeared in 1984.

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Chief Roy Whitney Jr., elected leader of the Tsuu T'ina Nation outside of Calgary, was marked for his role early. Born and raised on a cattle ranch, Whitney was working in that family business when he became a band councillor in 1976 at age 21 and chief at age 30.

He only recently stepped away from the cattle business, but says he can't point to a specific time that he chose the board room over the barn.

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A lot of people in business describe their operations as innovative and "cutting edge," but John Bernard, owner and president of Donna Cona Inc., a top informatics services firm headquartered in Nepean, Ont., is all of that and more. In his line of work, if you're not leading the pack, you may not be in business long.

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Big Bear, the movie, a Canadian mini series aired in 1998, will soon be followed by the publication a new play of the same name, reinterpreted for the stage by playwright Michael C. Lawrenchuk and presented by the Centre For Indigenous Theatre in Toronto.

Lawrenchuck, chief of the Fox Lake reserve in Manitoba and a classically trained actor, has written Big Bear as an epic play about courage, betrayal, passion and politics - a classic tragedy that tells the real life story of the Plains Cree leader Big Bear.