FILM: LUJ 051

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Mallory Metallic’s film is driven by curiosity – what is it like to work at the Listuguj Police Department, and not be from here?

The film offers a small glimpse into the lives of the officers. The cameras tag along, and learn about  the unique aspects of being new to the community. The good parts, and the bad.

The film isn’t pointing fingers, or taking sides, though. It is just helping the viewer relate to another perspective.

Relating and accepting others is an important subject to Metallic.

“I hate the whole native vs. non-native thing,” Metallic said.

The implications of these attitudes worries her. Especially when they’re passed on to kids.

“Once they’re done school, how are they going to feel when they go out somewhere else?”

This theme was also a focus in her first film, which won her an award.

LUJ 051 from Wapikoni mobile on Vimeo.

From the LMG (Sept. 21)

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LMG Communications would like to extend its congratulations to all those who made videos with the Wapikoni Mobile this summer.

“Community members used this resource to distribute their individual messages through the viewing at the Alaqsite’w Gitpu School and social media, which is awesome,” said Mike Isaac, Communications Officer for the LMG.

If you have not seen these videos we strongly encourage you to do so.

We also hope that the first few weeks of school have been excellent and hope this will continue throughout the school year.

Reminder next month is Mi’gmaq History Month so be on the lookout for information on this in our next issue.

Lobster Season is Open

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The lobster season opened on September 20. Those with tags can fish for three weeks until October 10th.

And those without tags can get cooked lobster at the Natural Resource building.

“A person can come everyday,” said Kirt Dedam, the Aboriginal Fisheries Strategy Coordinator with Listuguj Fisheries. “That’s how the system has always been.”

The lobster fishery is considered a food fishery.

“The main objective for this fishery is to make sure the community is fed with lobster,” said Dedam.

One person can receive one tag, which allows him or her to fish one trap for the duration of the season. Anyone with a tag cannot receive cooked lobster.

The community has 500 tags. 100 are kept by the LMG and used to directly provide food for the community. Those who receive the other tags are asked to also consider donating some of their catch to the community as well.

Wapikoni is Back

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Wapikoni Studios are back in Listuguj for another month-long stay. They’re working hard on 5 films and 4 songs with folks from here.

It’s entirely free to the community. But a project does take time.

You’ll be able to see all of the work on Sept. 10, at AGS School, at 6 p.m.

There are two fully equipped studios that travel to First Nation communities throughout the summer. A new team takes over at each stop. But the exact same team as last year have come back again.

“It doesn’t happen often that we have the same four people in a community,” said Francis Desroches. “We have a good team, and we have fun doing it.”

Francis Desroches outside the Wapikoni mobile studio on Sept 1. Photo: Adam Hodnett

Francis Desroches outside the Wapikoni mobile studio on Sept 1. Photo: Adam Hodnett

Films created with Wapikoni in Listuguj have been well received. They’ve  won awards. Nate Condo’s film last year has been accepted at a film festival in Texas. And one film has even started a career.

“I can say that there’s a lot of talent in Listuguj. The films that were made, and the music that was made in the last years has received a lot of recognition,” Desroches said.

Everything can be made with these studios – documentaries, narratives, music  and music videos.

Desroches is in charge of community outreach. Melissa Girvan is the coordinator.

“The idea also,” Desroches said, “is we keep meeting the same people, and we know them and we know how to work with them.

There are a lot of people doing projects with Wapikoni again this year.

“I was hoping to see a lot of the same people again,” Desroches said. “A lot of them showed up, so I’m happy with it.”

Anyone can do a project, or just help out. People are always needed for filming or recording audio. And everyone can help you develop any idea.

“We never know what’s going to come up,” Desroches said. “We have a big intense month of creation, and usually good things come out of it.”

Take a video tour of the mobile studio

Listuguj Summer Camp

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The Listuguj summer camps are over for this year, but the kids will now start school with all the great shared memories they’ve made.

The camps began with the idea of getting kids more active. But for the coordinator, Tierra Ritchie, there are now many beneficial aspects of these camps. She sees how much the kids love it, and how excited they are to come back.

“It’s 35-40 of your friends that you’re making these memories with,” Ritchie said. “It makes it that much more special.”

Listuguj Community Services hosts these three-week summer camps for three age groups – 7-9, 10-12, and 13 and up. Each group has different activities.

An effort is made to go visit places. The kids will go to Moncton for the day, or Quebec City. There’s also lots of nearby day trips as well.

The summer camp has been running for 5 years now. And while the organizers know what to expect, kids are showing up with more enthusiastic than they did at first.

Getting kids off the computers was challenge the first year, but now kids have memories, or hear stories from older siblings, and are excited to go to camp.

The organizers are always trying to improve the experience for all the kids. There has been talk about activities with other nearby communities, to start friendships young.

Riverside Recording their First Video

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Mark Morrison and Timmy Isaac have been playing music together for 15 years. They’re making their first music video together right now, with Wapikoni. Their band is called “Riverside.”

Morrison worked on a couple Wapikoni projects last year, including a video for his own song, “Teepee’s on the Highway.” (Find a link on the online version.)

“I was really happy with [the video],” Morrison said. “It couldn’t have come out better, you know. And I have these guys to thank for a lot of it … the way they put it all together, that was the magic.”

Having been through the process before, Morrison knew what to expect. They didn’t come to the studio with a fully developed film, but they had an idea, and never everyone involved would be able to work with it.

“We had some ideas of how we wanted it,” Morrison said. “But then getting together with them and hearing their ideas, and our ideas … we’re pretty much on the same page.”

They’ve been monitoring the tides, and have only said they want it to be dark. The song is called “All or Nothing.”

Mark Morrison’s video to “Teepees on the Highway,” created with Wapikoni last year

Wapikoni Video Tour

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Chief’s Message (Sept. 3)

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In the past the LMG has been spending money we don’t have and this is one of the main reasons why the LMG is in its current deficit. After working for over a year with the Directors and the staff to balance the budgets of the LMG to allow for financial stability and to ensure that the LMG is capable of providing the most effective services possible moving forward we cut the deficit by approximately three million.

Last month Council approved a post-secondary budget without understanding the ramifications of such a vote. This is going to have an impact on the programs and services of the LMG for the budget this year, along with the next few years.

However, as elected officials we need to look out for the best interest for our community as a whole and work within our means. This being said we will be working diligently to ensure that this decision has as little impact on the community as possible. It is my hope that we can work through this with the directorates, to ensure the continuation of partially funded programs and continue working to reduce costs and adhere to the budgets that are in place.

I would like to thank the directors who have worked diligently to reduce costs and maintain budgets.

State of the Salmon 2015

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The good news is more salmon have been recorded so far this year in comparison to last.

“We can’t say it’s a good year,” said David LeBlanc, the Executive Director of the Restigouche River Watershed Management Council (RRWMC). “Last year was a really poor year. It was one of the worst in many many years.”

However, there is still some encouraging data.

“The good news is we seem to have a good grilse run,” LeBlanc said. “The best since 2011.”

Grilse are typically 98 per cent male. They are young fish that have spent one winter at sea. A good grilse run could be an indication of a good smolt run the previous year. If so, it could mean there will be a good salmon run the following year, when the predominantly female fish start returning after two winters in the ocean.

These numbers are based on two estimating methods.

“Counting Barriers” on the Causapscal River and the Northwest Upsalquitch River block fish that are moving upstream. They’re then counted before the barriers are opened and the fish are allowed to continue on. These are operated by the Department of Fisheries and Oceans with the help of the RRWMC.

Visual counts in pools with canoes and snorkels are also conducted in the middle of the season on the Matapedia River by the The Corporation de Gestion des Rivières Matapédia et Patapédia (CGRMP). Another snorkelling count will be done in all the tributaries in September, and another in October.

LeBlanc said the results of these counts are only considered minimum numbers. It is not 100 per cent accurate.

“But at least it gives us numbers to compare year after year,” he said.

A smolt wheel is also operated to get a rough count of the young fish leaving the river systems for the first time.

“The result of the spring of 2015 were much higher than previous years,” said LeBlanc. “That’s positive.”

Reports from fishing camps also help provide a better picture of the salmon populations.

Overall, the rough estimate is that the population seems to be about 30 per cent better than last year.

“One of the fishermen did say that they did notice some pretty decent returns this year,” said Kirt Dedam, the Aboriginal Fisheries Strategy Coordinator with Listuguj Fisheries. 

Dedam said the Fisheries is just in the early stages of getting organized around the salmon file. Right now, the focus is solely on talking with the community, to determine what – if anything – it would like to do with the fish.

An end of season salmon harvesters meeting was held on August 13.

“That was  a first,” Dedam said.

In September a post salmon season discussion will be held. At the end of that month a consumption study workshop will be held. This will be a vital step to help determine how a consumption study will be conducted.

“It’s going to be a very important study for us,” Dedam said. “It’s going to help us talk about sustainability, and those types of things.”

The results of this study is entirely for Listuguj-use only.

“The raw data that comes from this is internally for us,” Dedam said. “We’re not doing it because government wants a number, or to put numbers on things. We’re doing it for the community.”

It is all to be able to talk accurately about the salmon, and understand the community’s wishes when addressing it. That’s why it’s so important to get involvement.

“I can have all the ideas, but I work in the best interest of the community always,” Dedam said. “That’s why we have to have these community meetings, to find out what people want to do.”

There will also be community salmon summit in October, and a management salmon summit in November.

Community Foundation

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A community foundation is different than standard charitable funds. It is permanent. It grows year after year. And it has more money for community projects, year after year.

How is that possible? Interest.

The simple explanation is: large sums of money generate substantial amounts of interest. A portion of the interest money is put back in to the fund, and the other portion is used for projects.

“You can expect annual growth between three and five per cent, per year,” said Naiomi Metallic, a lawyer at Burchells LLP in Halifax, who is originally from Listuguj.

Three per cent of one million dollars is $30,000.

Metallic, and a small group of others have been volunteering their time to establish this community foundation. It is called the “ Listuguj Aboqonmadultinech Community Foundation.” “Aboqonmadultinech” means “let us help one another in Mi’gmaq. It is already at approximately $20,000.

It will be the very first community foundation owned and operated solely by a First Nations community.

The idea was sparked when the loss-of-use settlement agreement was announced. Travis Wysote and Marissa Martin considered how to put individual distribution to community purposes. Then they connected with Metallic.

“She gave us a lot of structure,” said Wysote. “She had a lot of resources.”

One resource was a fellow lawyer with experience in charitable law, First Nations, and community foundations.

“He was telling stories about how – like in Vancouver or Victoria – they started with maybe $10,000, 50 years ago,” Metallic said. “But now it’s a multi-million dollar trust, and they do all kinds of amazing stuff.”

Once fully established, discussions will begin on what sort of projects and fundraising the foundation will focus on. Wysote and Metallic spoke of scholarships, and Pow Wow donations – which Wysote and Martin already contributed to this year, in the name of the foundation.

Other exciting ideas include a potential land trust to help purchase land, language camps, and emergency funds.

“I think we all have different hopes and aspirations when it comes to the end goal of the community foundation,” said Wysote. “But I think it’s a very useful platform to try and achieve those different ends.”

Metallic said the next step is creating a terms of reference. They want every aspect of the foundation to be clear, transparent, and accessible.

“These are permanent things,” Metallic said. “Once we get our community foundation designation – we’re going to be around. It will be something that will be here after I pass, so it’s going to be able to do good work. We’ve got time. Time is on our side.”

Find the website here and the Facebook page here and see the video of Metallic’s presentation at the Listuguj Wealth Symposium below: