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A northern Ontario community has pledged to take its fight for custom elections directly to the new Minister of Indian Affairs, Andy Mitchell.

A spokesman for the M'Chigeeng First Nation estimates the community has lost more than $4 million in revenue during an unresolved court battle with Indian and Northern Affairs Canada (INAC).

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Metis National Council President Clement Chartier has threatened to oppose the renewal of the Aboriginal Peoples Television Network's broadcasting license.

He did so in a letter written to the APTN board of directors in December. Chartier complained about coverage of the MNC and about the lack of Metis content in the network's programming. APTN is scheduled to go before the Canadian Radio-Telecommunication Commission in 2007. Chartier threatened to intervene against renewal of APTN's broadcast license at those hearings.

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"My belief as a film-maker is that you have to be able to share and pull from inside your own experiences so that you will be able to tell the film with the passion that it needs," said Shirley Cheechoo.

Cheechoo directed In Shadow, a short film that was featured at the Native Forum during the Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah Jan. 15 to 25.

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Chris Maracle, director of housing for the Mohawks of the Bay of Quinte council, was presented the top prize for building an energy-efficient home in Tyendinaga. The home won Maracle the 2003 EnerQuality R-2000 Excellence Award for Technical Excellence under 1,500 sq. ft. The award was sponsored by the Office of Energy Efficiency, a department within Natural Resources Canada.

The new home is one of 50 that make up the R-2000 subdivision in Tyendinaga.

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The Saugeen Ojibway have filed a huge new claim for title to a vast expanse of water and lakebed on Lake Huron and Georgian Bay.

"This claim is part of a long-term plan to return our people to complete self sufficiency by righting one of the wrongs of history," said Ralph Akiwenzie, chief of the Chippewas of Nawash First Nation.

The legal basis of the claim is that the Chippewas of Saugeen First Nation and the Nawash First Nation never signed treaties that dealt with their territory under those waters.

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February is a great month for lovers-book lovers, that is. Feb. 9 to 14 was First Nations Public Library Week. Later this month, Feb. 22 to 28, it's Freedom to Read Week.

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Alan Corbiere's mission is to bring the Anishinabek Nation's perspective to the history curriculum in education. The M'Chigeeng cultural researcher has been diligently compiling stories of unsung Aboriginal heroes.

Recently he presented some of his findings to an audience of Elders and community members at the Ojibwe Cultural Foundation (OCF) on Manitoulin Island. As a backdrop to his lecture he displayed replicas of original wampum belts and historically significant artifacts from the Canadian War Museum in Ottawa.

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Librarians from all across Ontario met in Toronto Jan. 29 and 30 for the annual conference of the Ontario Library Association.

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Without Reservation: Indigenous Erotica

Edited by Kateri Akiwenzie-Damm

Kegedonce Press

213 pages (sc)

$24.50

Without Reservation is a collection of poetry and prose by Aboriginal writers from around the world.

The subtitle promises "erotica." What the book actually delivers is love, loss, longing, and desire-with some humour and a little sex thrown into the mix.

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A two-year initiative launched by the Construction Sector Council (CSC) and the Aboriginal Human Resource Development Council of Canada (AHRDCC) will provide job opportunities for Aboriginal youth in British Columbia and elsewhere.

Roy Mussell, director of the AHRDCC and manager of the Sto:lo Nation Human Resources Development Council in British Columbia, is ecstatic about the announcement of the Ironworker Aboriginal Career Awareness Project.