There is a lot of this country that I think many Canadians have not seen. For example I have never visited the North West region of Ontario. In particular, Manitoulin Island which is over an hour away from Sudbury on the Georgian Bay. It is a beautiful natural landscape – a feast for my weary city eyes. To get here by car from Toronto it would take a person 6 hours a similar drive from Toronto to Montreal. 

It would have taken one hour by plane however I was grateful that I did not take that option. I had the chance to travel along the great Canadian high way passing many places I’ve only heard of such as Muskoka, Parry Sound and Casino Roma. We made a brief stop at the Casino sadly it wasn’t anything like I’ve seen in the movie. I guess I will have to go to Las Vegas for that. Along the way we were thankful that we dodged a tornado by 30 minutes in a town that we drove through.   

So what am I doing 6 hours away from Toronto? I was invited to become a member and take part in the AGM of the first Aboriginal Film Institute in Ontario. Weengushk Film Institute (WFI) was founded by Shirley Cheechoo a multi discipline artist from the Cree Nation.  WFI is a non profit charitable organization that offers media –arts programs in the fields of film, video and multimedia to Aboriginal youths and person of diversity. The institute has only been open to students for one year but within the institute has attracted attention to its education mandate. On May 2, WFI had its first group of graduation students and in July institute will launch the first emerging artist program and welcome fourteen new participants to the youth program in September 2010. 

To learn more about WFI please visit their website. www.weengushk.com