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- February 15, 2023
February 15, 2023
Reconciliation and Municipal Government 💡
 Clearing a New Path™ and Clearing a New Path Podcast™ are products of Radar Media, located in Dorchester, Ontario on the traditional territory of the Anishinaabe, Haudenosaunee and Neutral peoples who once used this land as their traditional beaver hunting grounds. As a settler here I’m committed to deepening understanding of Indigenous communities and reframing responsibilities to land and community.I am grateful to Mother Earth for the opportunity for love and connection and to the spirits of the Elders and the Medicine People who still walk the Earth.Â
FEBRUARY 15, 2023
I come to this work as a white woman of privilege; a vulnerable allyship student.I get things wrong often and I am open to, and welcome opportunities to be called in about the content in this newsletter, in order to create safe, brave spaces for all.The purpose is to unite people in rural Canada.I am grateful to walk along this journey in grace, love and empathy together.Simply hit 'reply' to contribute, suggest and correct.
Solutions-based journalism is reporting about people and organizations responding to social problems.I'm looking to add folks to my team to cover more issues with more urgency.Your support, no matter the size, can help.
WATCH A VIDEO SUMMARY OF THIS NEWSLETTER
RECONCILIATION AND MUNICIPAL GOVERNMENT COUNCILLOR MICHELLE FRIESEN
Hello Amazing Humans,
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And thank you to so many of you who continue to support our projects with partnerships, sharing our posts and information and by pitching in financially when and if you can. Chi miigwech!
Please share our newsletter and the sign up far and wide! If you have your own newsletters, I’d appreciate you encouraging folks to subscribe. It just helps the messages get that much further!
This week’s podcast episode is with Whitehorse, Yukon Territory municipal councillor, Michelle Friesen. Michelle is an Indigenous woman who is standing up for First Nations people in her own community but it is also inspiring others as she is sharing her experience on social media.
Michelle brings her son Theo to council meetings and recently, council moved to have the two First Nations flags, Kwanlin Dün First Nation and her family’s First Nation, the Ta'an Kwäch'än Council included in municipal chambers to further commit to reconciliation.
Michelle took the opportunity at a recent council meeting to address the discovery of children’s remains at residential schools and the continuous risk to Indigenous women. She wanted to share resources available.
She shared some of the messages she received after this on her social media account. And she started with the below statement.
Does this sound like your rural or remote community? If it does, be sure to scroll down below.
This week is also a special anniversary in the Yukon. It is the 50th anniversary of when a delegation of Yukon First Nations leaders flew to Ottawa to present then-prime minister Pierre Trudeau with a document laying out both grievances and a proposed plan for the future.It was called Together Today for our Children Tomorrow and it launched decades of negotiations that culminated in the territory's umbrella final agreement in 1993, a landmark moment in Canadian Indigenous rights, and individual self-government agreements for First Nations.
Below is a short video about it.
MICHELLE FRIESEN
RECONCILIATION AND MUNICIPAL GOVERNMENT
In our current climate of division in rural and remote communities (sometimes spoken but often unspoken division) could your rural and remote community benefit from a Kindness Circle this summer to draw folks together?
Radar Media and Clearing a New Path podcast and newsletter are teaming up with HUM Consulting and Circle of Change podcast to host and document Kindness Circles in rural and remote Canada this summer!
We’ll reveal more later but if this instantly calls to you, your organization or municipality, please get in touch [email protected]
BLACK HISTORY MONTH:
AMPLIFYING BLACK RURAL ENTREPRENEURS
I will be highlighting some amazing Black rural entrepreneurs I have had the pleasure of spending time with in the past on the podcast.
If you’d like to suggest someone to be featured from your own rural community, not just this month but anytime, please connect with me [email protected]
Selena Strong is the founder of Selena Strong Fitness and she has over 15 years of Exercise & Fascial Stretch Therapy experience, and she has never stopped learning and improving.
This is a mentality that she tries to pass on to every client she meets. Fitness is Life.
Selena is also a sponsored Fitness Competitor and Fitness Model.
She has worked with a wide range of clientele, from folks who survived severe auto collisions, to stroke patients with neurological issues. As an assistant trainer, she has worked with many athletes, including the Windsor Spitfires and the Guelph Storm.
Selena's message to you is:
"The journey is continuous and is oftentimes an uphill battle. Understanding that improvement and growth is a constant process and is not limited to the physical but also includes the mental and emotional process of real, lasting change. To want to be fit, or to want to be healthy, or to simply just be better, is something that, by its very nature, serves as a challenge, a call to battle and is never won alone. So, if you accept this challenge and you want to be better…you want to be stronger. I can’t wait to meet you!”
FUTURE TOPICS
Once again, Mother Nature prevented my trip to Oneida Nation of the Thames.
Next week will be my conversation with Pamela Cross a feminist lawyer; a well-known and respected expert on violence against women and the law for her work as a researcher, writer, educator and trainer. She works with women’s equality and
violence against women organizations across Ontario.
After leading the creation and expansion of legal programming and services at Luke’s Place in her role as Legal Director, Pamela has moved her focus to advocacy, and is now the Luke’s Place Advocacy Director, developing and leading law and policy reform efforts and media work at the provincial and national levels.
Pamela’s work has included sitting as a witness to the coroner’s inquest into a triple femicide in rural Eastern Ontario and the 86 recommendations that came out of that inquest. Pamela has created a toolkit to help other rural Canadian communities implement changes quickly to address uniquely rural challenges when it comes to intimate partner violence.
The PARO Centre for Women’s Enterprise I spoke with Business Advisor and rural restaurantpreneur, Gitanjali Aggarwal about both PARO and her own entrepreneurial journey.
Gitanjali [git-tan-ja-lee] is a name that comes from the Sanskrit language and means collection of lyrics. As the famous line goes, what's in a name? For Gitanjali, her journey has reflected her name.
Fierté Canada Pride has a new Rural and Remote Pride Collective. The organization has a fantastic conference completely focused on Rural and Remote Pride coming up next month in Kelowna, British Columbia.
Want to suggest a topic?I'm always open to amplifying you and/or your organization.Want to partner with me?Send me an email and/or leave a voice message.
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SUPPORTERS
This newsletter and the Clearing a New Path™ podcast are supported by Xplore Business, formerly Xplornet Enterprise Solutions.
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