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The Greater Sudbury Police Service (GSPS) and the Sudbury Youth Referral Program (YRP) are co-operating to steer first-time offenders away from the court system.

Such prevention measures are mandated by the Youth Criminal Justice Act that came into effect on April 1, 2003.

Under the program, youth who have committed non-violent offences such as shoplifting, mischief or minor assaults are introduced to extra-judicial remedies.

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Elders are meeting at Six Nations of the Grand River for the first International Indigenous Elders' Summit of the Americas in late summer. Elders from the South Dakota, Cree, Ojibway, Mayan, New Mexico's Navaho and Colombia's Kogi nations and others will gather to share knowledge on youth suicide, historical trauma, domestic violence, environment and health. They hope that discussions on these issues will result in resolutions that will be presented to the United Nations as well as to governments in North, Central and South America.

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The Symposium on Traditional Knowledge and Indigenous Cultural Expression, held in Toronto April 24, looked at what speaker Brian Wright-McLeod called a "serious and important issue that needs to be dealt with."

Presented by the Creators' Rights Alliance and Native Women in the Arts, and supported by the federal Department of Canadian Heritage, Industry Canada, and Aboriginal Business Canada, the day's discussion focused on the use of traditional knowledge in art and the creative areas.

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Only 25 years old, Joe Osawabine brings a wealth of threatre experience to his new post of artistic director of Manitoulin Island's De-ba-jeh-mu-jig Theatre Group.

De-ba-jeh-mu-jig, well known for mounting productions by renowned CanadianAboriginal playwrights, is now in its twentieth year. Osawabine, a member of Wikwemikong Unceded Indian Reserve on the Island, came on board as a performing artist in 1991.

He first appeared in the Ojibway production of Lupi-The Great White Wolf.

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De-ba-jeh-mu-jig Theatre Group is touring Prague, Czech Republic this month as part of a creative collaboration with the drama department at the University of Toronto and Prague's Studio Ysilon Theatre.

The Prague-Toronto-Manitoulin Island Theatre Project (PTMTP) is spreading its message of cultural understanding through the performance of two plays: A Trickster's Tale by Tomson Highway and Myths That Unite Us, an original piece created and produced by all the participants of PTMTP.

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Dancer and choreographer Santee Smith didn't work for two years after her daughter, Semiah, was born.

"I had to have some time to connect with her and recover from the experience," Smith said. "I don't think I had a full eight hours sleep for a year-and-a-half [after she was born]. She was a difficult baby, and I was worn out."

Eventually, however, she had to get back to work. Carrying a child and giving birth had opened up a new world of artistic possibility.

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The National Aboriginal Forestry Association (NAFA) is encouraging Aboriginal youth to consider forestry careers.

The association is targeting youth in at attempt to address the current shortage of Aboriginal people involved in management of forest resources.

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For 12 years, the First Nations forestry unit of the North Shore Tribal Council (NSTC) has ensured that forestry services remain accessible and viable. The unit has been providing consulting, management and technical services to bands and to Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal forestry businesses. Although staying afloat in the forestry business has been marked by financial challenges, NSTC has kept its head above water.

Jukka Heikurinen, a forester at NSTC, is one of the players in one of the forestry success stories that have emerged .

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A senior government official warned us a week before Indian Affairs Minister Andy Mitchell'speech at the Canada-Aboriginal Roundtable meeting in Ottawa on April 19 that it would be a "launch pad" for the Paul Martin agenda.

It was. The Indian Affairs minister laid out a number of details about what his department will be doing to further the Prime Minister's plan to make Aboriginal issues a government priority.

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A Chiefs of Ontario letter shows that the fight over who votes and who doesn't at the Assembly of First Nations' twice-annual confederacy meetings will resume at the next chiefs' meeting in May.

National Chief Phil Fontaine sent a letter to all First Nation chiefs and councils on March 18, announcing that "the next Confederacy of Nations to be held at Saskatoon, Saskatchewan on May 18, 19, 20, 2004 will be conducted in accordance with Article 11 of the AFN Charter."