Jasine Dennis is a front line worker with the Eskasoni Community Health Centre in Nova Scotia. In the two years she has served as a registered nurse in that community, located 75 km west of Sydney, she has faced the issue of youth suicide.
And that's not unusual. The overall First Nations youth suicide rate is five to seven times higher than the national rate for Canadian youth and the suicide rate among Inuit youth is up to 11 times higher than the national average, and the highest in Canada.

Governments offer support

For the second straight year a standout lacrosse player from Six Nations has been named as Canada's top Aboriginal male athlete.
Cody Jamieson, who had more than his share of accomplishments in 2007, has been selected as the male national winner for the Tom Longboat Award.
And Victoria native Stacie Anaka, a wrestler who captured a bronze medal at a world meet last year, is the female national winner.

A brand new play with an Aboriginal perspective debuted on April 24 at the Algoma University College(AUC) Shingwauk theatre in Ontario called "The Pencil Box".
Tom Gower is the director of the original drama/comedy performed by the university's aboriginal student group. Gower and his fellow group member, John Paul Chalykoff, co-wrote the play, basing it on real life events told to them by an acquaintance, Tammy Sanderson.

Vibrant voices and colourful characters from across the country were on display at Carleton University in Ottawa March 1, as an eclectic mix of Aboriginal artists from a wide array of disciplines, strutted their stuff to a full house of 150 people.
Attendance at the 7th annual New Sun Conference was not affected by the morning snow storm; although a few of the artists had their planes delayed and were running on minimal sleep.
The day started with Kahnawake Mohawk filmmaker Tracey Deer as she laid out her early beginnings in filmmaking at the tender age of 12.

The political future for Aboriginal people at the House of Commons is looking brighter. That certainly seems to be the case with the win of 25-year old Alika Lafontaine, on Canada's Next Great Prime Minister. Lafontaine, a Métis physician in Saskatoon, not only took away a prize of $50,000 and a six-month paid internship, but he also found out being a part of a contest like this demonstrates a growing participation of youth in politics that is pivotal to finding solutions to Aboriginal issues.

Athletes from 13 Canadian provinces and territories ­ and as many as 20 United States teams ­ are peaking in their training for the Aug. 3 to 10 North American Indigenous Games, to be held in B.C.'s Cowichan Valley on Vancouver Island.
Coaches say young athletes are hard at work preparing their minds and bodies for exemplary showings in 16 contemporary and traditional sporting events, such as archery, badminton, lacrosse, softball, swimming, volleyball and wrestling.

Despite the efforts of administrators in the Delta school district to improve the success rates of Aboriginal students, 50 per cent of its students remain academically at-risk, according to a recent annual report on the learning outcomes of students.
"We have 500 Aboriginal students in our district and we're a district of about 16,000 kids. And we find that about half of those 500 kids are at-risk while the other half is doing fine," said Director of Special Programs, Kathy Guild.

The following article is the first in a series of retrospective stories that will be running in Windspeaker, providing a look back at news and events that made headlines from 1983 to present day.

Artist-Little Hawk
Album-Home and Native Land
Song-The Bottle Drinks from you
Label-Arbor Records
Producer-Little Hawk