Letter from SEVEN Co-ordinator-Co-publisher

Hello, boozhoo

I’ll start with telling you a little bit about myself, so you can understand why I worked so hard to get to where I am today.

My name is Grace Winter I’m 27, Ojicree and originally from Big Trout Lake, after I was born I was adopted over to Kingfisher Lake. Where we stayed for about 3-4 years. I grew up in downtown Toronto and moved to Thunder Bay when I was 17.

After moving to Thunder Bay it hit me like a ton of bricks, something I thought I had gotten over from when I was a child, which was issues with my identity and culture. I didn’t know any “Nish” people in Toronto, all my friends were of different cultures. The more I thought about it, I noticed all my friends in Toronto were very involved in their cultures wherever they came from, China, Egypt, Israel. It seemed to me, that they could all speak their languages, knew their cultural ceremonies, history, and had a solid foundation of who they were. Or at least where they came from.

It made me wonder why I wasn’t like that. I had always wanted to have more education and knowledge of being anishnawbe. At that time I wasn't able to answer questions about my culture when asked. I am still, and will always be learning.

I look at our young people today including myself and a lot of us don’t know how to speak or understand our language. However some may know how to speak or at least understand. But now we are reviving our culture and knowledge. We are not letting it disappear, or become a story of “there was a time we used too….”

When I was about 18, there was a lot going on in my life along with trying to finish High School (which I did, thankfully). Along with that I was away from anyone I knew, pregnant, very lost emotionally, and spiritually. I felt empty, confused, sad, and even angry.

That’s when I heard a native prophecy saying the 7th generation would be the ones to turn things around for our people. So I went home and thought, sure it sounds good and its necessary but what can I do? I didn’t want to go to school to become a Teacher or a Doctor, I wanted to become a Graphic Designer.

I told myself I was going to make a difference, whether it be big or small. I would either start, or help start a native youth magazine geared towards Native youth in Northern Ontario. And would call it “SEVEN” which would represent our seven sacred teachings: humility, truth, love, respect, honesty, bravery and wisdom, and the Seventh Generation.

My dream was that it would cover almost anything and everything, it would be our voice our chance to say what we want without being judged. If we are the future, we should be heard.

And now it’s actually happening, with a lot of support and hard work from passionate, talented people. One idea has brought many people together with the same goal: a voice for our youth.

SEVEN's purpose is to not only give you a voice, but also a chance to showcase your creativity, share your thoughts, opinions, and give you resources.

If you have suggestions or would like to submit something send it in and we will help you out from there, or if you’re shy we can do things anonymously too. But I’m sure someone out there will be thankful that you made a contribution, its always helpful to know other peoples point of view, and be able to relate so you don't feel alone.

Even though most of the media coverage anishnawbe people get leans towards the negative, as Brent Wesley mentioned during our presentation at the Seven Sacred Teachings Conference.

This means SEVEN is not just about suicide, poverty, and negative things, it's also about the successes and triumphs of our youth. We are making a conscience effort to cover it all, and always keep an open mind.

With SEVEN we can build a solid foundation for ourselves, our future, our youth.

That is why you are so important, we need to hear from you! So together we can send the message that we are strong and we are going to make a difference.

If you have any questions or would like to know how you can help just send me an email at gracew@wawatay.on.ca or if you would like to mail something in send it to:

Grace Winter c/o Seven Magazine
216 South Algoma St.
Thunder Bay, On
P7B 3C2

Meegwetch, for your time.

p.s
I look forward to hearing from you!