In a unanimous decision on June 8, the BC. Court of Appeal stated that the federal Aboriginal Fisheries Strategy is not a race-based fishery. The news was greeted positively by the First Nations Summit and with a promise to appeal to the Supreme Court by the BC Fisheries Survival Coalition.

The court decided the communal license of the Musqueam-Burrard and Tsawwassen nations was not a separate fishery but simply a method of allocation of the resource.

The Allied Tsimshian Tribes (ATT) brought just one message when their representatives visited Norway in June, and it was a clear and emphatic one: Fish farms are not welcome in their territory.

That message was heard by a wide range of prominent people in the country, home to the world's leading fish farm corporations, and it was backed by delegates from southern B.C., the United States and Chile.

Throughout her life, Nancy Johnson has had a love of music. Growing up on Caldwell First Nation, her home was often full of music, and she developed an appreciation for all styles, including folk, rock, blues and old time country. She counts Buffy Sainte Marie, Bruce Cockburn, Gordon Lightfoot, Joni Mitchell, Hank Williams, Johnny Cash and the Beatles among her musical influences.

It's been almost a decade since Ted Nolan sat behind the bench of a National Hockey League (NHL) team but that's just where he'll be next season.

On June 8, New York Islanders owner Charles Wang announced Nolan was the team's new head coach.

Nolan, who hails from Garden River First Nation, has had a long and storied hockey career, both as a player and a coach. He played in the Ontario Hockey Association and American Hockey League and spent three seasons in the NHL in the early 1980s as a member of the Pittsburgh Penguins and the Detroit Red Wings.

Fifteen independent Aboriginal acts from across the country will be featured on the latest Dig Your Roots CD compilation. Representing Ontario on the disc will be the roots and blues duo Digging Roots from Barrie, the award-winning blues musicians of the Pappy Johns Band from Ohsweken and Toronto's Graeme Jonez, whose songs fuse storytelling with folk/rock melodies.

The artists selected to represent the Atlantic region on the compilation disc are Rez Villain from Bedford, N.S., Shirley Montague from Norris Point, Nfld. and Richard M. Gloade from Fredericton, N.B.

The National Association of Friendship Centres (NAFC) will be receiving $77 million in federal funding, it was announced on May 18.

The money, to be spread out over four years, will allow the NAFC to continue to manage and deliver programming for friendship centres and urban multipurpose Aboriginal youth centres and to continue Young Canada Works for Aboriginal Urban Youth. Just under $38.5 million has been allocated for the 2006-2007 fiscal year.

Metis culture and tradition will be celebrated and shared on Aug. 12 as the historic site Discover Harbour plays host to Metis Day.

Discover Harbour, located on Georgian Bay in Penetanguishene, features a reconstruction of the British naval and military establishment that existed on the site from 1817 to 1856. The area is rich in Metis history, as many voyageur families migrated to the area in the early part of the 19th century.

The Nishnawbe Aski Nation (NAN) has officially begun the final summer of its two-year commemoration of the 100th anniversary of the signing of James Bay Treaty 9.

The James Bay Treaty 9 area takes in two-thirds of the province of Ontario and is home to about 45,000 First Nations people living on-reserve. Last year, each of the seven First Nations that signed the treaty in 1905 hosted events to mark the anniversary. This year, the eight communities that signed in 1906 will do the same.

Community members and Aboriginal leaders were buoyed in May by an announcement that the Ontario provincial government had put its support behind plans to move the beleaguered community of Kashechewan to higher ground, but any optimism that relocation might become a reality sooner rather than later has been quashed by news that there is no money in the federal coffers to pay for the move.

Aboriginal people in Canada are three times more likely to be victims of violence than are non-Aboriginal Canadians, according to Victimization and offending among the Aboriginal population in Canada, a report released by Statistics Canada on June 6.

The report, which bases many of its findings on a general social survey conducted in 2004, showed that the risk of becoming a victim of violence was highest among Aboriginal youth, with individuals between the ages of 15 and 34 nearly two-and-a-half times more likely to be victims than individuals over the age of 34.