Research

KORI develops online Media Player

Rick Garrick Sept. 10, 2008

KORI has a new communications tool to share its work with the communities and keep the leadership and the grassroots informed about the latest research projects undertaken by KO's research wing.

The KORI Media Player is designed to play edited video clips from archived and recent video conferences and workshops."The two to three-minute video clips are much smaller in size than the archived videos, so they download fairly fast over a high speed connection," says Jordan Sturgeon, one of the KORI project team members who developed the Media Player in conjunction with K-Net's multi-media department over the summer months. "The video clips are also readily playable on most computers."

Niigaanibatowaad- Frontrunners torch bearer shares story via videoconference

Rick Garrick Sept. 15, 2008

The story of one of the 10 First Nation torch bearers who was not allowed to carry the 1967 Pan Am Games torch into the stadium is now posted on the KORI Media Player. "We thought we would run in the torch," says the Sagkeeng First Nation citizen who helped run the torch over 800 kilometres of ancient messenger trails from Saint Paul, Minn., to Winnipeg, Man. "But woe and behold, the torch was taken away from us. It was handed to an athlete from the games and he took it in. We were thanked, but we were not brought into the stadium."

Martine Kanakakeesic, KORI’s new researcher

By Rick Garrick Nov. 2007

North Caribou Lake's Martine Kanakakeesic still remembers how surprised the Elders in her community were during their first Telehealth examinations.

"People were amazed with how the technology works," says the former North Caribou Lake community telehealth coordinator and current youth information and communication technology (ICT) technician and research assistant at the Keewaytinook Okimakanak Research Institute (KORI) in Thunder Bay.

Elder examines Aboriginal artifacts via videoconference

By Rick Garrick

Elders V/CAn Elder from Manitoulin Island recently examined Aboriginal artifacts in England via videoconference from MiChigeeng First Nation.

"That is a drawstring," says Odawa Elder Eddie King at the beginning of the two-hour videoconference as he examines a woven bison-hair bag with a five-figure-with-joined-hands petroglyph design that is believed to be from the 1730 to 1800 AD year period. "I looks more like a type of bag they would carry extra pipe stems in. These bags were not used for travel, they were just used to store the stems in."

First Nations Women in Leadership Videoconference

By Rick Garrick Feb. 2008

Elder Pastor Rhoda Beardy highlighted the vast changes she has seen in women’s leadership over her lifetime during the Jan. 28 First Nations Women in Leadership Videoconference.

"Her role as a woman was defined," says her niece Rosie Mosquito, recalling what Beardy said in her Honouring Women Leaders videoconference presentation from the Keewaytinook Okimakanak office in Balmertown. "She was brought up to listen to her husband — and that’s what she always did."

In churches, women weren’t allowed to stand on pulpits, play guitar, sing, much less operate them, Mosquito adds. Over time, women have taken on new responsibilities. Women now preach and play the guitar and sing.