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Aaron Sorensen was at a cross-roads. He had gone back to school to work on his master's degree in education, but came to the realization that it just "wasn't turning my crank at all."

And though he had been a musician in his earlier days, "I just hadn't really made it as a singer/songwriter and was getting too old to try again."

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Legal council for Lesser Slave Lake Indian Regional Council says Alberta's draft consultation policy on land management and resource development was developed in a high-handed and arrogant manner and is entirely unconstitutional.

Jeff Rath says the draft policy doesn't meet the standards set out in the recent Supreme Court of Canada Haida and Taku decisions.

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Alberta Learning and Edmonton Public Schools (EPS) have joined forces to ensure that Aboriginal content and perspectives are reflected in the provincial curriculum across all core subject areas.

The school board began work developing what's being called an "infused curriculum" in the spring of 2003 after being awarded a contract by Alberta Learning. The first step in the process, said Donna Leask, an Aboriginal education consultant with EPS, was to consult with representatives of the province's Aboriginal communities.

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Though she's only a Grade 10 student, Taryne Boudreau has already represented Canada in international competition.

Boudreau was a member of the Canadian national girls' under-15 side that played three exhibition contests against Germany's under-15 squad in September 2004.

Boudreau, Metis on her father's side, and her Canadian teammates won two of the matches, all held in Atlantic Canada.

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Can you tickle people's funny bones? FunnyFest, the second largest comedy festival in Canada, is looking for Aboriginal stand-up comics.

The Calgary-based festival, which runs from April 28 to May 14, is holding a talent search every Saturday from Feb. 5 to March 26 at the Sheraton Suites Eau Claire. The festival, in its fifth year, draws comedians from around the world to perform at its nine venues and 70 shows.

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The 2005 FASD National Conference, held in Victoria from Feb. 24 to Feb. 26, will focus on equality of access to health care, education, social services and justice for those people afflicted with Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder, caused in the fetus by exposure to alcohol before birth.

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Susie misbehaves so often at school that she's had 15 suspensions already this year. Skye has a pointed chin, misshapen ears and is small for his age. The kids tease him and he responds by shouting and hitting. Phoenix frequently asks the teacher to repeat her solutions of math problems, causing the other kids to call him a dummy.

These unhappy and frustrated children are all students with FASD-Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder. Their mothers drank alcohol when they were pregnant. FASD is permanent and these children will have problems throughout their entire lives.

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Injecting herself with insulin was the hardest thing Chrissy Landry needed to deal with after learning she had diabetes.

At 13, Landry faced the challenge of the disease with a little fear and a lot of support from her mother, but it still didn't prepare her for the total lifestyle change she would need to make. It took her more than a year to feel confident enough to administer her own insulin.

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The latest figures from the Regional Longitudinal Health Survey show that smoking rates among First Nations people in Canada is dropping, but we'll have to wait until the end of 2005 for researchers to tell us why.

Statistics from the 2002-03 survey put the rate of smoking among First Nations people age 20 and over at 57.6 per cent, down 4.4 per cent from survey figures for 1997 and 1991 when the rate was at 62 per cent.

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James Whitford of Goodfish Lake couldn't have had a life that had dealt him a more cruel hand. His father died from cancer when he was a boy and his mother committed suicide before his eyes. His brother hanged himself at age 17, and another froze to death just three years ago after a night of drinking.

But Whitford wants people to know that he embraces the life he's been given. His community, his faith, his wife and children help him deal with the memories of those painful times. Life is worth living no matter what the hardships.