The First Light in St. John’s has been working on programming for the fall.

Sharon Harvey is the Executive Director.

She says she is also the Arts and Culture Coordinator.

Harvey says there are different types of programming such as the sewing program, Inuit program, there will also be throat singing, an orange shirt day craft, craft program (beaded chockers).

Anyone who is willing to participate in these program can give her a phone call at 1-709-327-7327, she can also be reached through Facebook or by email.

She also adds that the Memorial University has had a tent gathering that took place on Elizabeth Avenue that following week where people can join and enjoy some drumming or throat singing along with First Nation drumming.

Click here to hear more from Harvey on the programs with First light.

Noreen Careen, Labrador Grenfell Health Chair of the Board of Trustees and Heather Brown, President and CEO of LGH invites the public to attend the Labrador Grenfell Health AGM.

It starts at 9am on Sunday, September 25 of this year.

The meeting will be hosted in person at the Lawrence D O’Brian Town Centre on 11 Branch Road in L’Anse Au Loup and online Microsoft Teams. Details will be posted on www.lghealth.ca/agm next week.

At the AGM, Labrador Grenfell Health will share strategic priority accomplishments and challenges, financial information and partnership highlights from the 2021-22 fiscal year.

Throughout September, a field crew will be working out of Hopedale to capture lesser geese as part of the Kaujivalliajut nillikulunnik project.

Some of these geese will be collared so that we can track their migration and find out where they are coming from.

Each collar that is deployed represents many hours of preparation, training, and effort by the project team.

Please report any collars that you recover as soon as possible, particularly if you find one in September so that we may have a chance to put the collar out again.

There is a reward for collars that are returned.

Contact information for found collars is located on the side of the device.

If you find a collar during the month of September, please instead call 709-896-6780 and let a staff member know that you have recovered a collar so that it may be returned quickly.

To report a band, submit it to reportband.gov or call 1-800-327-2263.

Elizabeth Penashue, an Innu Elder and an activist from Sheshatshiu, remembers the Queens visit to Labrador.

She said she was picking berries when she heard Queen Elizabeth II had passed away last Thursday.

“I couldn’t believe it. I was shocked to hear that,” she said.

Queen Elizabeth II visited Newfoundland and Labrador 3 times, in 1959, 1977 and 1978. Her visit in 1977 included stops in Sheshatshiu and North West River where she opened the Labrador Interpretation Centre.

Penashue still remembers the excitement of her visit.

“When people come to know she’s going to come to Labrador, everybody worked hard and worked together”, she said.

Penashue had set up a tent on the Sheshatshiu beach, where community members of all ages would gather.

“I try to make it nice, my tent. I ask my son, Peter, I said bring Queen Elizabth II inside my tent,” and she remembers her son was doubtful, he said “I don’t think she’s going to come inside.”

On the event of her tent, her tent was full of children and elders in addition to the crowds of people outside.

“I stand up. I opened my tent. I was surprised”.

Queen Elziabeth II went inside and greeted the people gathered there including Penashue, “I was so happy”, and goes on “Oh my God, I was so happy, oh my, I never thought I would see you and touch your hand”.

Penashue was really fascinated by the Royal Family, and even has a collection of books and magazines about the Queen.

“She was very nice, very nice woman, and she’s so important”, Penashue said.

This year, 2022 marks its 42nd for Terry Fox walk or run, will begin this coming Sunday, September 18th.

The Terry Fox Foundation supports the event annual for cancer, Marathon of Hope is what Terry called it when he started his first walk in St. John’s Harbour on April 12, 1980.

Terry had been diagnosed with cancer on his right leg in 1977, which was above his knee.

While in hospital, he was so overcome by the suffering of other cancer patients that he decided to run across Canada to raise money for research.

At that time, he ran nearly 42 kilometers (26 miles) a day through Atlantic Provinces, Quebec and Ontario.

Terry’s last words was, “If I don’t make it… the Marathon of Hope must continue.” The young Canadian did not make it while trying to run for Cancer Research with one leg.

Terry Fox also said, “I wish people would realize anything is possible if you try; dreams are made possible if you try. Even if I don’t finish, we need others to continue. It’s got to keep going without me.”

Again, the Terry Fox Run is this coming Sunday, September 18.

There is a part-time first-aid training business here in Nain called Inukshuk First Aid.

Rex Holwell Jr. is the Northern Production Lead.

He says he came up with the idea a couple of years ago and it is presently in the works.

He is willing to train a minimum of 6 people and a maximum of 8 each session.

If there is more than 8, he will have to look for a bigger venue to train the employees.

Click here to hear more from Holwell on his Inukshuk First Aid training.

Inuit Tapiriit kanatami said it was the 15th Anniversary of the adoption of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples or UNDRI yesterday.

Watch ITk’s Tim Argetsinger speak about the challenges and progress made in implementing the declaration in ways that relate to Inuit in Canada.

He states:
“I think it is quite remarkable that, to my knowledge, Canada is the first nation state to pass national legislation seeking to implement the Declaration.

That’s both, a really exciting opportunity, but in many ways it’s also a challenge because it means that we do not necessarily have a clear path or other models to follow.

We are figuring on how to do this in the best possible way. So the work is developing the action-plan the question about how the action plan intersects with Section , which is the decision that creates an obligation for the government to take all measures necessary to align the lines that we recognize by the declaration with Canadian Laws = we’re developing solutions of how to ensure that the articles are implemented in a way that have positive impacts in the day to day lives of Inuit and Indigenous people’s”.

Tim Argetsinger is the Special Advisor to ITk’s President, Natan Obed.

There was an election that took place for AngajukKâk in Rigolet.

The Polling Station was at the Lord Strathcona Building, and here are the results:

Advanced Poll for September 8, 2022, Blake Craig – 16, and 25 for Chesley Sheppard.

Poll for September 13, 2022, Craig Blake – 45, and 72 for Chesley Sheppard.

Which brings a total of 61 for Craig Blake and 97 for Chesley Sheppard.

Chelsea Shiwak, Returning Officer for the Community of Rigolet declare that Chesley Sheppard has been elected as AngajukKâk of the Inuit Community Government of Rigolet.

Dated at Rigolet on September 14, 2022.

Congratulations to Chesley Sheppard on being elected as AngajukKâk for Rigolet on behalf of the OKâlaKatiget Society!

Beginning next week, some Newfoundlanders and Labradorians will be able to get Moderna’s new Bivalent vaccine, and Public Health is already eying how they can expand the eligibility.

Yesterday, Chief Medical Officer of Health Dr. Janice Fitzgerald unveiled the province’s plans for a fall/winter COVID vaccination campaign.

The province is expecting its first 63,000 doses of the vaccine later this month, with more to follow.

Initially, that vaccine will be reserved for those in certain high-risk groups, but Dr. Fitzgerald says they are already looking at potentially expanding the eligibility—but that is dependent on how much supply the province gets.

She says it is difficult to gauge what the uptake will be like at this stage. They want to see the initial uptake first, and over the next few weeks, they may have more information about expanded eligibility.

Meanwhile, Fitzgerald says it is too early to tell whether such vaccine campaigns in the fall/winter will become the norm moving forward.

She says because immunity does wane over time it is looking like yearly campaigns may be the way they have to go. But she says they are still learning about what the long-term COVID strategy may have to be.

The Nunatsiavut Government has 14 moose licences available to be drawn and harvested by Beneficiaries of the Labrador Inuit Land Claims Agreement for the 2022-2023 hunting season. This is a reduction in the number of licences issued in the 2021-2022 hunting season, as a recent aerial survey and a traditional knowledge study indicates the moose population in the region is in decline. Only 17 of 25 licences issued last year were filled.

The 2022-2023 Beneficiary moose licences will be distributed as follows:

2 licenses for each of the communities along the coast, as well as Happy Valley-Goose Bay and North West River; 1 per household draw and 1 per Inuit Community Governments/Corporation.

Household draw licences will be valid for 14 days. If a licence is not filled within 14 days, a new draw will take place to designate a new hunter. This will continue until all licences are filled.

Interested Beneficiaries must apply at their local Nunatsiavut Government office. There is a limit of one licence per household. Proof of residency, as well as your Nunatsiavut membership card, may be requested.

The 2022-2023 Moose hunting season opened yesterday, September 14 and will close on March 7, 2023.