Asian American students less likely to be accepted to universities than white applicants: study

Michelle De Pacina
Thu, August 10, 2023


[Source]

Asian Americans are less likely to be accepted to colleges or universities than white applicants, according to a recent study published by the National Bureau of Economic Research.

About the study: Researchers analyzed five admission cycles from 2015 to 2021 and found that Asian American applicants were 28% less likely to be admitted to highly selective institutions than white students with similar test scores, grade point averages and extracurricular activities.

“Unrelated” to the affirmative action case: The findings of the study, which is reportedly the first to collect such data in nearly a quarter century, are “largely unrelated” to the affirmative action case, according to data scientist Josh Grossman, one of the study’s authors.

“If you consider that Black and Hispanic students have a disadvantage in a world where affirmative action exists and don’t believe that Asian American students have those disadvantages … then Asian American and white students should be admitted at similar rates,” Grossman told Inside Higher Ed.

 “What we found is that is not the case.”

Admissions gaps: The researchers also found admissions gaps among different ethnicities of Asian American applicants. Students of South Asian descent were 49% less likely to be admitted than white applicants as compared to a 17% difference between students of East Asian descent and white students.

“We haven’t seen any other paper that really treats Asian American students as anything other than this monolithic group, but there is a marked heterogeneity in their experiences,” Grossman said. “If you don’t consider that, you lose an important part of the story.”

Legacy status hurts applicants: The study also suggests that legacy admissions, which favor alumni’s family members, disproportionately hurt applicants. White and Asian American legacy applicants are reportedly more than twice as likely to be accepted than applicants without legacy status. However, East Asian and Southeast Asian applicants are three times less likely to have legacy status than white students. As for South Asian students, legacy status rates are almost six times lower than those of white students.

Lahaina’s Historic Banyan Tree Is Scarred, but Standing

Jacey Fortin
Fri, August 11, 2023 

A banyan tree stands along Lahaina town's historic Front Street in February 2018, in Lahaina, Hawaii. The 150-year-old tree was scorched by a devastating wildfire that started Tuesday, Aug. 8, 2023, and tore through the heart of the Hawaiian island of Maui in darkness. 

(AP Photo/Jennifer McDermott) 

Amid the charred ruins of Lahaina, one of the historic town’s cherished landmarks is still standing: a 150-year-old banyan tree. But it appears to have been badly singed by the fires that devastated Lahaina, on the west coast of Maui, and it is unclear whether the tree will survive.

Lahaina was once Hawaii’s royal capital, and the tree on Front Street is one of the town’s many historical marvels. It was just 8 feet tall when it was planted in 1873 to commemorate a Protestant mission to Lahaina a half-century earlier, but years of careful tending by residents helped it grow to more than 60 feet tall, according to the Lahaina Restoration Foundation, which manages more than a dozen historic sites in the town.

“It’s said that if the roots are healthy, it will likely grow back,” county officials said in an update about the tree late Wednesday. “But it looks burned.” County and tourism officials did not immediately respond to requests for more information Thursday morning.

James Friday, an extension forester with the University of Hawaii, said he had been looking from Honolulu at photos and videos of the tree and was not hopeful about the tree’s prospects. The banyan would have been protected, he said, by a layer of bark too thin to likely withstand these fires.

“It certainly doesn’t look like that tree is going to recover,” Friday said.

Banyans, which are native to the Indian subcontinent, can grow so big that each tree looks like a small forest. The trees have aerial roots that develop in the branches and reach down toward the ground, forming new trunks as their canopies broaden. In Lahaina, people have encouraged the tree’s growth by hanging jars of water to tug the most promising aerial roots toward the earth.

The leafy canopy has grown to cover more than half an acre. The tree sits next to an old courthouse that has also served as a customs house, and it has become a natural gathering spot for craft fairs and other community events where people enjoy the shade of its sweeping branches.

On Thursday morning, Theo Morrison, the foundation’s executive director, expressed some optimism about the tree’s future. “Banyan trees are hard to kill,” she said.

But she also reported that the roof of the old courthouse beside the tree was gone, and that the heritage museum inside it had been destroyed.

Trees downed by flames can recover by sprouting from what remains of their roots. But that would make more sense in a forest, Friday said. In an urban setting, planting a brand-new sapling — rather than nursing a smattering of charred stumps back to life — would probably be simpler.

c.2023 The New York Times Company

U$A

Nickelback, Chris Brown, and other stars scored $200 million in taxpayer funds meant to keep arts groups afloat during the pandemic. They won't say what they did with the money.

WAIT, WHAT? NICKELBACK IS CANADIAN

Katherine Long,Jack Newsham
Updated Fri, August 11, 2023 

Burak Cingi/Redferns; Mick Hutson/Redferns; Todd Owyoung/NBC/NBCU Photo Bank via Getty Images; iStock; Rebecca Zisser/Insider

In 2021, Congress started a program to give grants to arts organizations affected by the pandemic.


Insider found some of the biggest grants went to arena-filling musicians like Post Malone.


One big-name asset management firm secured more than $260 million in grants for its clients.

How Post Malone, Chris Brown, Nickelback, and other stars scored $200 million in pandemic taxpayer cash

Early 2021 was a prosperous time for Austin Richard Post, better known as the "Sunflower" singer Post Malone.

While many of his entertainment-industry colleagues struggled to pay rent under the pandemic-era lockdowns that decimated live music in the US, Post bought a 9,000-square-foot ski chalet in Park City, Utah, which had been listed for $11.5 million, in an all-cash transaction that February.

By May, he'd bought an industrial space in a Salt Lake City suburb that had been listed for $1.45 million. There, he opened a commercial forge to craft knives and swords, "as a hobby," Post's representative told the city's planning commission.

But later that year, a corporation controlled by Post successfully applied for a $10 million grant from a taxpayer-funded federal program intended to provide "emergency assistance" to help struggling arts groups recover from the pandemic.

The program, the Shuttered Venue Operators Grant, was a lifeline for the live-entertainment business. Administered by the Small Business Administration, it doled out $14.5 billion to institutions like movie theaters, ballets, operas, talent agents, performing-arts venues, and museums. Unlike the Paycheck Protection Program, which many venues didn't qualify for, the Shuttered Venue program was a grant, not a loan. Qualified applicants were eligible for up to $10 million with no obligation to repay it.

"SVOG was there to save us, and to carry us through," said Meredith Lynsey Schade, who was managing an off-off-Broadway theater company when the pandemic hit.

But the Shuttered Venue program was also plagued by ineffective oversight and loopholes that allowed some of the biggest names in the music industry to get huge payouts, an Insider investigation found.

R&B artist Chris Brown got $10 million. Rapper Lil Wayne got $8.9 million. Nineties rockers The Smashing Pumpkins got $8.6 million. Nickelback — yes, Nickelback — received $2 million.

All told, Insider identified dozens of corporations and limited-liability companies controlled by high-profile musical artists that received grants through the program. A single financial-management firm in Los Angeles successfully submitted grants on behalf of 97 artists, venues, and managers, amounting to more than a quarter of a billion dollars in grant payouts, Insider's analysis found, including more than $200 million for big-name artists alone.

Did your favorite musician get a big federal payout?

Insider identified dozens of big-name musical artists whose touring companies scored millions of dollars in federal grants during the pandemic.

Source: Small Business Administration

Publicly, the bill that created the Shuttered Venues grant was marketed as supporting behind-the-scenes workers at indie venues and small stages — not arena-filling musicians.

Sen. Chuck Schumer, one of the lawmakers who sponsored what was then known as the "Save Our Stages" bill, told his constituents the money would be used for "independent live venue operators, independent movie theaters, and cultural institutions such as live performing arts organizations and museums," according to a press release. At a star-studded ceremony in April, Schumer was honored by the Recording Academy, the group behind the Grammys, for passing the bill. A spokesperson for Schumer declined to comment.

Hundreds of musicians and other performing artists signed an open letter to Congress asking them to support "neighborhood independent venues" where many of them had gotten their starts.

Some of those same artists controlled companies that went on to receive multimillion-dollar payouts from the program, including the electronic-music superstar Steve Aoki ($9.9 million) and the "Feel It Still" crooners Portugal. The Man ($2.25 million).

The Shuttered Venue program "helped save thousands of entertainment venues and operators across the country during the COVID-19 pandemic," an SBA spokesperson said in a statement. Nearly half the grant money went to businesses with fewer than five full-time employees, "the smallest of small businesses," the spokesperson added.

But some of the artists' businesses Insider analyzed would fit into that category. For instance, Aoki's corporation, DJ Kid Millionaire Touring Inc., told the government it had just four full-time employees on its application for a $71,000 PPP loan.
A lack of controls

There is no indication that payments to big-name artists broke the law. Though the legislation was targeted at "live performing arts organization operators," an SBA representative confirmed to Insider that artists themselves were included within its scope.

The government is still determining just how much pandemic-era aid went to fraudulent claims. In June, the SBA inspector general released a report contending that 8% of the loans disbursed by the Paycheck Protection Program, which pumped about $800 billion into the US economy during the lockdowns, might have been fraudulent. The agency's Economic Injury Disaster Loans, which paid out about $400 billion, had an even higher rate of potential fraud, according to the report: one-third. Fraudsters blew the money on things like sports cars, luxury handbags, and gold bars, the inspector general found.

The SBA has disputed those findings, and touted its oversight of the Shuttered Venue program in particular as wildly successful. The agency estimates that less than 1% of grants disbursed through SVOG were fraudulent, it said in a report last month.

Industry sources contacted by Insider defended the Shuttered Venue program by pointing out that many artists typically contract with hundreds of sound and lighting technicians, costumers, drivers, security personnel, and other contractors when they put together a tour. All those contractors were out of work during the lockdowns, the sources said, and artists applying for grants could have used the money to help keep them afloat.

Electronic music superstar Steve Aoki asked Congress for money to save small stages. Then a company he controls got a $9.9 million grant from the program.Greg Doherty / Contributor / Getty Images

But there was no requirement that they spend the money that way. The grant money was intended as replacement for lost revenue, and recipients could spend it on things like existing mortgage payments, taxes, and payroll — including paying themselves.

The lack of spending controls created opportunities for impropriety, according to the SBA's inspector general and sources reached by Insider.

For one, applicants needed to get the SBA's approval on a detailed budget to receive a grant and to submit documentation showing how the money was eventually spent. (The agency denied Insider's requests under the Freedom of Information Act for records showing how the artists spent the money, citing an exemption for confidential business records.)

But after they had the money, recipients were permitted to shift it around to different authorized uses, the inspector general noted in a report last year. It called the practice "concerning" and out of line with how the SBA administers other grants.

Moreover, companies that contract with artists to support tours were themselves eligible to receive SVOG funding, raising questions about whether some companies were paid from artists' grants while also receiving grants themselves. For instance, two of the biggest sound-system providers for touring, Eighth Day Sound and Clair Global — which merged in 2020 — each received $10 million grants.

Insider contacted more than 60 grant recipients, including Clair and Eighth Day, as well as all of the artists named in this article, to ask how they spent their grants. None of them shared detailed information, and most did not respond.

Eighth Day's president, Tom Arko, said he had no insight into how Eighth Day used the grant money because Clair Global has handled its finances since the merger. But he was surprised when an Insider reporter shared the names of some of the artists whose companies received grant money. Other stars like Bonnie Raitt and Justin Bieber paid their production crews from their own pockets when the pandemic canceled their concerts, Arko noted.

There were few limits on how the money could be spent. The grants couldn't be used directly for some things, like buying real estate or making political donations. But under SBA guidelines, the grants could be used to pay "owner compensation," an amount the agency capped at whatever the owner earned in 2019. In other words, Post Malone or the members of Nickelback could have used at least some grant money to pay themselves directly without violating the program's rules. (There is no evidence that they did so.)

And artists weren't the only ones free to get in on the action: The SBA told Insider that grant recipients could pay the lawyers, managers, and accountants who prepared their applications whatever was "ordinary and necessary" — a figure as high as 15%, according to the complaint in one lawsuit. By contrast, the Paycheck Protection Program capped such fees, which it called "agent fees," at 1% for PPP loans.

Business managers, talent agents, and others surrounding the artists also cashed in directly. Two companies owned by Post Malone's comanagers, Austin Rosen and Dre London, received grants totaling nearly $20 million in 2021. Rosen, for one, didn't appear to be hurting for money: In 2021 and 2022, he spent $25 million to assemble a Miami Beach estate. (Insider found no evidence that either man paid themselves.)

Two entities partly owned by the legendary talent manager Irving Azoff, whose firm's clients include The Eagles, Lizzo, Harry Styles, and Gwen Stefani, together got $17.5 million from the program.

Music mogul Irving Azoff, pictured here with Gwen Stefani at last year's Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony. Two entities he partly owns got $17.5 million.Kevin Mazur/Getty Images for The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame

Marty Singer, a lawyer for Azoff, told Insider that the companies complied with the SVOG program's rules and that Azoff himself was not in need of any bailout funds.

A pandemic-era asset purchase appears to support Singer's description of Azoff's financial position. In November 2021, Azoff purchased a $21.5 million Beverly Hills estate adjoining another home he owns.

"Irving Azoff did not benefit personally," he said. "My client doesn't need SVOG money to buy a house."

Publicly traded companies were ineligible for grant money, but the concert powerhouse Live Nation still was able to benefit from Shuttered Venue funding as a slew of its subsidiaries were bolstered by grant money, The Washington Post reported.

In a statement, a representative for Live Nation said the company has no ability to control whether its subsidiaries access aid programs, adding that the subsidiaries used "every resource legally available to them to support their employees through this crisis, which was not only their right but also an entirely understandable and human thing to do."

A $496,000 overpayment

Meanwhile, smaller and less celebrated organizations struggled to access Shuttered Venue funding. Many applicants found it difficult to navigate the SBA's requirements, which contributed to 30% of applications being denied, compared with a 3% denial rate for Paycheck Protection Program funds. The owner of a New Orleans escape-room company complained to The Intercept in 2021 that the SBA was creating "winners and losers in the same industry because of the arbitrariness of the awards."

The agency was initially so unprepared for the onslaught of applications that its online portal crashed and was offline for two weeks. Some small-business owners were told that the SBA had denied them funding because the agency believed they were dead.

Applicants went to great lengths to qualify for SVOG funds, scrounging up floor plans and marketing materials and amending years of tax returns to revise their NAICS codes, according to lawsuits and a music-industry accountant who spoke with Insider. But for others, the process was far easier. Andre Lorquet, a Florida man, looted $3.8 million from SVOG with a few phony tax documents, court records say. He used some of it to buy a Lamborghini. (Lorquet pleaded guilty to identity theft and money laundering in January.)

A company controlled by the members of the metal band Korn received nearly $5.3 million in taxpayer-funded grant money.Daniel Knighton/Getty Images

The SBA's inspector general has raised questions about the program's oversight, finding in a report last year that the "SBA did not follow fundamental grant management controls intended to protect taxpayer funds."

In one case the inspector general reviewed, an application for $55,000 resulted in a $551,000 grant — a $496,000 overpayment. In another instance, an SBA employee concluded that a recipient who had initially received a $4.9 million grant was actually eligible for only $3 million, but the agency didn't take any steps to recover the $1.9 million in overpayments.

In a response to the inspector general's report, the SBA contested those findings, saying both awards were justified. "The SBA has robust compliance control processes in place to ensure funds were used in accordance with congressional statute, including ongoing monitoring programs and audit reviews, and refers any suspicions of fraud to federal law enforcement," an agency spokesperson said in a statement to Insider.

The inspector general is conducting an additional audit of the grant program, which it expects to release this year.

'Outside-the-box' advisors

Within the music industry, though, one asset-management firm alone helped unlock more than $260 million in taxpayer money for just 97 artists, venues, and managers, according to an Insider review of the SBA's grant-recipient database.

That firm, NKSFB, counts some of the biggest names in the music industry as clients, including Post Malone, Marshmello, Aoki, Godsmack, and Korn. It played up its success with Shuttered Venue grants: One partner bragged to Billboard that they helped clients explore "outside-the-box" funding streams like SVOG.

The firm began applying for Shuttered Venue grants on behalf of its artists starting in July 2021, according to a lawsuit filed against NKSFB by Laurence Leader, a rival business manager who claimed he pitched the firm on the idea of getting grants for their clients — for a 15% commission — only to have NKSFB steal his idea. NKSFB denied the allegations; the case is pending.

A veteran NKSFB manager, Michael Oppenheim, was initially skeptical that his clients would qualify for the grant, according to the lawsuit. But after Leader told Oppenheim he'd already submitted an application on behalf of an unnamed jazz musician, Oppenheim decided to give the idea a try, the lawsuit said.

Within weeks, NKSFB had submitted applications on behalf of "dozens" of its "popular mainstream artist and band clients," according to the suit. Under SBA rules, the firm would be permitted to take a cut of each grant.

One business manager told Insider his clients began to "aggressively" press for SVOG money once word of NKSFB's strategy got around. The business manager said he didn't think artists or managers qualified, and went to a prominent lawyer, who agreed.

"If you look at the name of the program, it's the 'Shuttered Venue Operator Grant,'" the manager said. "Nowhere in there do you hear 'performer' or 'artist' or any of that."

NKSFB's managing partner Mickey Segal declined to comment, citing a corporate policy of not discussing client matters. Oppenheim died in April.

'Comparing wounds'

Schade, the theater-company manager, who says she's the type of person to "always do my homework," heard about the bill that would create the Shuttered Venue Operators Grant in early 2021 and threw herself into learning its intricacies. She became something of an SBA whisperer to small and midsize arts groups applying for the grant, reviewing applications and funneling information from the SBA to a 2,500-member Facebook group. Their questions ultimately became so overwhelming that she hired an assistant to help her address them, she said.

Much of the money disbursed through the grant program went to symphony orchestras, theatrical groups — including all five touring productions of "Hamilton," the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, and the magician David Copperfield — concert halls, zoos, aquariums, and small community-arts organizations, according to a review of the more than 13,000 grant recipients published on the SBA's website.

Grant officers scrutinized applicants minutely, applicants told Insider, asking them to submit concert posters and contracts from previous tours to prove that they were legitimate performers.

Some recipients say it's unfair to critique the program in hindsight. At the time it went into effect, pandemic shutdowns had battered the performing-arts industry, leaving tens of thousands of actors, musicians, stagehands, ushers, security guards, lighting and sound technicians, costumers, and set designers out of work. Managers and agents, who take commission payments from artists' revenue, also saw their source of income dry up as the pandemic canceled tours, three music industry managers told Insider.

Though she was an up-close witness to the struggles of small arts organizations during the pandemic, Schade said she was in no position to judge famous musicians that had received money through the grant program.

"Comparing wounds during the pandemic is not a healthy way to approach things," Schade said. Bigger acts have more expenses, she added.

"We can, now, look back three years later and say there wasn't enough oversight," she said. "But the reality is that when there's a fire that's burning you look around and try to put that fire out."

The difficulties of the pandemic, though, clearly did not affect all of the grant recipients equally.

Gary Osier, a booking agent whose company represents dozens of acts including ZZ Top, Foreigner, and 98 Degrees, appears to have weathered the pandemic without much financial distress. In November 2021, as the Delta variant raged throughout the nation, he was able to purchase a $2.1 million four-bedroom lake house outside Dallas using cash.

But his company, Gary Osier Presents, wasn't quite as fortunate. It applied for a $10 million SVOG grant, which it received in July 2021. The company had previously received a PPP loan of $127,000; its application said it had one employee at the time.

The grant came at a time when the SBA was under pressure to do more to help the touring industry. Just a month earlier, 55 senators had sent the agency a letter urging it to disburse the SVOG funds more quickly.

"The SVOG program is unique, with necessary restrictions built in to ensure taxpayer funding goes only to eligible applicants in need," they wrote. "Bureaucratic process cannot stand in the way of getting these desperately needed funds out the door."

In a statement, Osier said his company "fully complied with all auditing and monitoring requirements of the SVOG program, including use of grant funding" and "put the grant funds to work solely for the critically important purposes for which the SVOG program was designed."

When asked what those purposes were, he did not respond.

These AI-powered robotic pets from China are now for sale

Ryan General
Thu, August 10, 2023 



[Source]

The concept of traditional household pets is getting a futuristic twist with the emergence of AI-powered robotic pets that don't require feeding, grooming or walks in the park.

Robot dog: Chinese company Unitree Robotics recently unveiled its consumer tech product called the Go1, an intelligent quadruped robot designed to be a companion without the need for leashes or collars.

It mimics the movements of a dog and incorporates stability control, motion coordination, obstacle avoidance and adaptive learning through AI.

More from NextShark: Chinese investors lead foreigners with $6.1 billion in purchased US real estate last year

Go1, which can reach speeds of up to 10 miles per hour, can even tailor its pace to match that of its owner, whether they're cycling, skateboarding, or simply strolling.

The Go1 is also equipped with fisheye binocular sensors and human recognition software, allowing it to follow its owner's cues. The most basic version of the robot weighs 26 pounds and boasts a load-carrying capacity of up to 11 pounds. The company currently sells it for $2,700 with an additional $1,000 for shipping.

Miniature marvel: LivingAI, also a startup based in China, offers a more compact AI companion in Emo, an AI-powered desktop pet just under 5 inches tall. The diminutive robot, which is powered by internal sensors and AI processing, can respond to its owner with over 1,000 facial expressions and movements.

More from NextShark: Korean scientists create world's first photothermal air filters that kill influenza, COVID-19 viruses

Emo is reportedly able to explore its environment, learn from interactions and even do simple tasks such as turning on lights or setting alarms. Emo is currently being sold on the company's website for $279.

Concerns raised: Despite the robots' stated practical uses and benefits, experts have advised caution in the addition of AI pets to one's home.

More from NextShark: Father in China gifts his son 20 properties to help him attract a wife

In an interview with Fox News, Dr. Harvey Castro, a prominent voice in AI healthcare, noted that while AI pets provide consistent companionship with minimal maintenance, they cannot replicate the intricate experiences that come with caring for a living being. Real animals foster physical activity and offer a deeper emotional connection, which AI companions cannot fully emulate. He also raised concerns about data privacy and dependency on AI pets for companionship, adding that the potential long-term psychological effects — particularly on children — remain largely uncharted territory.

Creating connections at tattoo gathering in Kanesatake


Local Journalism Initiative
Fri, August 11, 2023

When Kahnawákeró:non Katsitsahente Cross-Delisle looked at her finished tattoo from Miciah Stasis at the Kanehsatà:ke Traditional Indigenous Tattoo Gathering, she could feel the presence of their ancestors.

“It must be amazing for our ancestors to see us now,” Cross-Delisle had said at the time.

Stasis, who is from the Herring Pond Band of Wampanoag in Massachusetts, attended the gathering with her sister, and as she tattooed, she played traditional music on her speaker. Cross-Delisle couldn’t help but notice how similar it was to the traditional music she had grown up hearing and that the beautiful wampum jewellery Stasis was selling was the same as the wampum shell she’s so familiar with.

“Our ancestors must have been trading. It’s a warm feeling to look around at all the different artists and see people from different cultures and see that we’re similar. It must be real nice for our ancestors to see that,” Cross-Delisle said. “Their work wasn’t in vain. Even if the colonizers tried to stop our connections, you can’t stop us talking together. We’re sitting there, we found a way.”

This year marked the second annual Kanehsatà:ke Traditional Indigenous Tattoo Gathering, held from August 4-6 at the Kanesatake powwow grounds. The event was organized by Kanehsata’kehró:non Katsi’tsaronhkwas Stacy Pepin.

“I’m really, really happy to be able to build these connections between other communities,” said Pepin. “It was a good time, everyone was sharing the medicine, and sharing the love, and gaining new connections and new friends, and trading.”

Many artists accepted trades for their tattoos – for the second year in a row, Pepin traded a pair of moccasins for her tattoo, as well as beadwork.

“It’s really about revitalizing the tradition of markings – we always say tattoos, but they’re markings, they’re rites of passage,” Pepin said, explaining that rekindling practices like trading for work is an important element of the gathering. “It’s about establishing a very safe and inclusive space for all Indigenous people, whether you’re fully immersed in the culture or whether you’re just reconnecting and finding yourself. It’s an opportunity to explore not only your own culture and traditions, but to share.”

Cross-Delisle has been getting tattoos with the goal of honouring her culture for some time now. She works in archaeology, often recovering ancestral remains or artifacts such as Indigenous pottery.

Her arms are already adorned with designs made up from fragments of her favourite pieces of pottery she’s found, and she worked with Stasis to add onto those designs, incorporating a lightning bolt design into one of her existing pieces.

“When I was a kid, whenever there was a lightning storm or thunder, I’d be so excited to sit on my porch and listen to everything, listen to the rain. As a kid, I never knew that the thunders are a medicine. It was only when I started getting older that I realized that they are, they help clean the environment, clean how you’re feeling,” Cross-Delisle explained.

She told Stasis about her often emotionally-draining work as an archaeologist and thought about how often she needs that extra medicine to take care of herself. The two decided together to add seven lightning bolts to the six triangular points already in her tattoo.

Now, she carries the medicine with her on her arm.

“When you’re dealing with ancestors that went through a lot of traumatic things, you feel what they went through,” Cross-Delisle said. “So that’s why I had the idea of lightning bolts, and she came up with tattooing them like that.”

For Cross-Delisle, it’s not just the imagery of the tattoo that is meaningful. The act of receiving the tattoo, done with traditional hand poke techniques, is especially important.

“This is a ceremony between me and the artist, because I’m telling her the different things that I went through in life, and the different things I’m doing right now, and why I feel like I need this,” she explained. “The fact it’s hand poked, it’s a lot more intimate. You sit there, you can hear it. You’re so connected.”

Both Cross-Delisle and Pepin hope that the success of the past two years’ gatherings signals a vibrant future for traditional tattooing – Pepin hopes that there could one day be a tattoo gathering trail in the same way as there is the powwow trail.

“I’m definitely going to do it again next year,” Pepin added.

After Cross-Delisle received her tattoo, she walked down to the beach behind the sacred powwow grounds where the gathering took place. As she thought about how meaningful it was to have received a tattoo in the Pines surrounding her, she looked up and saw a rare sight – two eagles, flying together.

“I realized everything is set in motion,” she said. “Everything is connected.”

evedcable@gmail.com

Eve Cable, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, The Eastern Door

Kanesatake women speak out against tree cutting


Local Journalism Initiative
Fri, August 11, 2023 

When members of Ionkwatehontsénhne decided to speak with The Eastern Door, they wanted to meet in the Pines, where a white sign reads “Onen’to:kon preservation area. No cutting trees.”

Around it, piles of branches and logs lay in tidy piles. Keep Their Heads Ringin’ by Dr. Dre blasted from a nearby cannabis store. From another, a man walked out and wanted to know why someone was taking pictures. He said it was private property.

In fact, he stood on community land.

When members of Ionkwatehontsénhne – committed to protecting the Pines – arrived, the man returned to ask why the group had assembled here. “This is our land,” one replied. The man went inside again.

“I think that’s the very thing that fuels us,” said Alana – not her real name – referring to the pressure. “It takes very strong people to stand here and say you’re not doing this, this is not right.”

She and two other Kanehsata’kehró:non women who met with The Eastern Door– who have been given the pseudonyms Brenda and Clara – expressed fears for their safety, which is why their identities are being concealed. “If anyone’s pinpointed as a leader or to be outspoken, we get targeted. So it’s very important that there’s no real names,” said Alana.

“What happened here in 1990 was bigger than all of us,” she said. “And the Pines represent that for us, and it’s sort of like our backbone in Kanesatake to say we’re real Onkwehón:we, and we’re proud of it. So we decided to dedicate this area for a memorial site to remember 1990 and honour the Warriors, the women, everyone who fought to stand for us. If we didn’t do that, this would be a golf course, apartment buildings owned by Oka. We would have nothing.”

The group of women previously intervened in tree cutting in 2020, with more than 10 women gathering in freezing weather to halt the felling of trees for the expansion of cannabis stores.

Within the past couple months, an agreement to leave the tree line around the preservation sign was violated, they said, and a once dense patch of forest is now gone.

“It’s what it symbolizes,” said Brenda. “In 1990, I was there. We fought for these trees. And we want people to become aware that these are majestic. This is health. There are medicines in here.”

Their goal is all about awareness, the women said, trying to work to create common ground in the community around the importance of the pine forest.

“There’s a lot of people who are really against seeing the Pines getting cut. But there is the other half where it’s like, ‘Get over it. The trees have already been cut. It’s too late.’ But it’s not too late. There are still a lot of trees left that we can save,” said Clara, who said she was too young to intervene when the stores were first being built.

“A lot of these stores aren’t backed up either by all Onkwehón:we here. These people are greedy. They’re not from here, so they’re just going to keep pushing, pushing, pushing to take everything they can here, because there are no laws here. It’s a free-for-all.”

Despite the calls to halt cutting, Alana said the group is not seeking to get rid of the cannabis stores on the strip, but rather insisting they not expand into the forest.

“We’re not going to start digging up pavement and destroying buildings. We want to save what little we have left,” said Alana.

“I just want to make it very, very clear that we are not against economic development of any kind. What we are doing here is seeing how much one individual can take.” She said it would be wrong and unnecessary to cut deep into the pine forest. “You don’t need that,” she said.

“Do your thing, but do it in a way that is true. We can take being Native and making a business and make it work together where you have your store, you do your thing, but you’re not going to take acres and acres of community land just because you have the manpower or the intimidation tactics behind it.”

The group declined to speculate on what their next steps might be if the cutting of trees continues.

gmbankuti@gmail.com

Marcus Bankuti, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, The Eastern Door

Six Nations leaders say Robbie Robertson gave cultural centre invaluable support

 


TORONTO — A gesture by late musician Robbie Robertson has drawn attention to a Six Nations community's cultural restoration project and local leaders anticipate it will have a lasting positive impact.

Heather George, executive director of the Woodland Cultural Centre in Brantford, Ont., says a public request from Robertson's family to donate to the centre's fundraising efforts for a new building has already drawn much attention as news spread of the musician's death on Wednesday at 80 years old.

"One of my hopes is that more people learn about Woodland, the work that we do and the history of our site," said George in a phone interview.

The Woodland Cultural Centre is located on Six Nations land and is part of the former grounds of the Mohawk Institute Indian Residential School. The school closed in 1970 and is now preserved as a historic space to educate people on the impacts of the residential school system.

The cultural centre provides resources to promote Indigenous language and history with the goal of sharing the story of the Haudenosaunee people through exhibits and performances.

Robertson, best known as former guitarist of the influential 1970s Americana rock act the Band, was a frequent advocate for the Six Nations of the Grand River where he spent some of his youth.

He opened his 2016 autobiography “Testimony: A Memoir” by acknowledging the community as a hugely influential piece of who he became. He explained it was the place where he first learned about music and "serious storytelling.”

His memoir is scattered with vivid memories of his time in the community and recollections of the impoverished upbringing faced by his Cayuga and Mohawk mother and other relatives.

Those experiences framed Robertson's own convictions to dedicate some of his life to drawing attention to Indigenous music and art, particularly from young creators.

The Woodland Cultural Centre received some of that support when Robertson recently agreed to serve as honorary chair for a campaign to replace the older building, which was in extreme disrepair. A request by his family for donations in lieu of flowers became an unanticipated part of that support.

"(People) like Robbie have been involved in a lot of really important movements for Indigenous arts and culture, but usually, behind the scenes," George said.

"We have these huge conversations going on right now around repatriation and Indigenous rights. And I think sometimes, culture and heritage aren't always given much visibility in terms of thinking about healing or community wellness."

Ava Hill, co-chair of the capital committee for the Woodland Cultural Centre project, said she anticipates a "tremendous" impact from Robertson's name.

The former chief of the 56th and 57th Six Nations Elected Council first met the musician about a decade ago when she was in the leadership role. She said Robertson was deepening his connections with the community at the time while applying for his status card, which he eventually received before a visit around 2018.

“I think he was very proud to say that he was a member of Six Nations 'cause I remember him flashing his card to everybody," she laughed.

The two stayed in touch occasionally by email in recent years, which is what led to his involvement in the cultural centre project.

"He always was concerned about what was happening at the bush," she said.

"When we started, I kept thinking, 'Oh, I can't wait for the day that this opens and we can have Robbie up here, talking to people and maybe playing his guitar.'"

Hill said she is still processing the realization that can no longer happen.

However, thousands of dollars in donations have already come in for the Woodland centre after Robertson's death.

The response leaves her hopeful that organizers can find ways to honour Robertson as they build a positive space for Indigenous artists and "break that cycle of intergenerational trauma that so many of our people suffered because of the residential schools."

"One of those ways that we can (do that) is giving people hope and inspiration," she added.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Aug. 11, 2023.

David Friend, The Canadian Press

Scott Moe says Saskatchewan byelection losses sent a message to government

The Canadian Press
Fri, August 11, 2023



REGINA — Premier Scott Moe says he was sent a message about cost of living and housing as his Saskatchewan Party lost two of three provincial byelections.

The initial count from Elections Saskatchewan shows NDP's Jared Clarke well ahead of Saskatchewan Party candidate Nevin Markwart in Regina Walsh Acres, and the New Democrats Noor Burki in front of the Saskatchewan Party's Riaz Ahmad in Regina Coronation Park.

The governing Saskatchewan Party held the rural riding of Lumsden-Morse.

Moe says he feels disappointed by the outcome but byelections are about voters sending a message to governments and it was clear in the urban ridings that affordability is a significant issue.

Moe says now it's up to the Saskatchewan government to listen and act.

The next provincial general election is set for October 2024.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Aug. 11, 2023.

The Canadian Press

CANADA

STATE HARRASSMENT
Cases against 146 Fairy Creek logging protesters are dropped after high court ruling




OTTAWA — The BC Prosecution Service says it's dropping 146 cases against old-growth logging protesters after Canada's highest court refused to hear an appeal against the acquittal of a demonstrator who had been cleared of criminal contempt.

The Supreme Court of Canada dismissed the appeal application from the B.C. Crown and awarded costs to protester Ryan Henderson.

In light of that decision, the cases against other people who took part in the Fairy Creek blockade on southern Vancouver Island have been withdrawn.

Prosecution service spokesman Dan McLaughlin says there was no substantial likelihood of convicting the other protesters accused of violating a court injunction at Fairy Creek, and the matters are now concluded.

Henderson was cleared of contempt in February when B.C. Supreme Court Justice Douglas Thompson found RCMP officers only read a shortened version of the injunction to hundreds of protesters, including Henderson, who were arrested at the Fairy Creek blockade.

Thompson ruled the abbreviated script used by the officers didn't contain enough information to give protesters "actual knowledge" of the injunction contents and prove they were "wilfully blind" to its terms.

McLaughlin says the 146 cases dropped by the Crown hinged upon the same issues in Henderson's case.

As is customary, the high court did not provide reasons for its ruling.

"The police used the same pre-arrest script in the 146 cases that were withdrawn. Those cases were withdrawn earlier this year pending the decision of the Supreme Court of Canada," McLaughlin said in an email Thursday.

"As these cases suffered the same inadequacies as to notice as the court found in Henderson, the Crown concluded that there was no longer a substantial likelihood of a conviction and the charges were withdrawn."

Henderson's acquittal previously prompted the BC Prosecution Service to withdraw contempt charges against 11 old-growth logging protesters in April, but many similar cases remained before the court.

The Fairy Creek protest began after logging permits were granted in 2020 allowing Teal Cedar Products to cut timber, including old-growth trees, in areas including the Fairy Creek watershed northeast of Port Renfrew.

Protest camps were set up close to the cutting site in August 2020 and injunctions aimed at preventing interference with logging or forestry crews followed the next year.

Confrontations escalated in 2021, leading to active RCMP intervention and what is considered one of the most extensive acts of civil disobedience in Canadian history as more than 1,100 demonstrators were arrested.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Aug. 10, 2023.

Darryl Greer, The Canadian Press

Note to readers: This is a corrected story. A previous version referred to acquitted protester Ryan Henderson by their former name.

B.C. midwives and province deliver new three-year deal, increasing wages




VICTORIA — British Columbia midwives and the province have ratified a new three-year, wage-increasing agreement with the overwhelming support of health-care workers.

The new deal includes a series of fee increases and measures that the province says will provide more supports for Indigenous midwifery.

A vote among members of the Midwives Association of British Columbia on July 31 garnered 99 per cent support for the agreement, with 89 per cent of eligible association members taking part in the ballot.

The agreement is effective retroactively from April 2022 until March 2025.

Fees increase by 3.24 per cent, 6.75 per cent, and two per cent over the course of the deal.

Health Minister Adrian Dix says the agreement "will be transformative in helping grow the profession."

Lehe Spiegelman, co-chair of the midwives association, says in a news release that the deal will allow midwives to focus on maternity care in B.C., which she says has the highest rate of midwifery-involved births in the country.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Aug. 11, 2023.