{"id":24435,"date":"2017-07-13T09:30:53","date_gmt":"2017-07-13T13:30:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.cccc.org\/news_blogs\/?p=24435"},"modified":"2020-06-18T14:27:04","modified_gmt":"2020-06-18T18:27:04","slug":"canadas-best-kept-secret","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cccc.org\/news_blogs\/storiesoffaith\/2017\/07\/13\/canadas-best-kept-secret\/","title":{"rendered":"Canada’s Best-Kept Secret – Indian Life"},"content":{"rendered":"

Submitted by Intertribal Christian Communications<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

We have often been told that Intertribal Christian Communications is Canada\u2019s best kept secret. In spite of the fact we\u2019ve been around since 1979 and our literature and resources go to every province and territory, many people still have never heard of us or may have heard about us but never actually read any of our publications.<\/p>\n

Indian Life at powwow event<\/p><\/div>\n

Sandra (not her real name) was just such a person. For over three decades our flagship publication INDIAN LIFE newspaper has been sent to her community in northern Ontario and she has often seen it at the band office or at the friendship centre.<\/p>\n

One day recently, we received a call from Sandra to let us know how much she enjoyed reading INDIAN LIFE. \u201cI have known about this newspaper for a long time and have seen it when it arrives at our band office but I never actually picked it up and read it until just this week.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sandra went on to describe the impact some of the articles made and that she wanted to subscribe not only for herself but also for her friends. Of course, this is music to our ears and has been what has kept us going for almost 37 years.<\/p>\n

Our world is filled with so much bad news and when we consider how the media covers our Indigenous communities, there is very little positive news.<\/p>\n

Our founders\u2019 vision was to present \u2018good news\u2019 about what\u2019s happening across Native North America (INDIAN LIFE is distributed in the United States as well). It was their mission to see our newspaper placed in every Indigenous home in North America. While we are still a long way from accomplishing our goal, we still aim to present positive news and encouraging articles which bring hope, healing, and honour to our First Nations and Metis and Inuit.<\/p>\n

INDIAN LIFE has undergone quite a transformation since our beginnings. As a publication, we went from a newspaper to a magazine and back to a newspaper. We went from just hard copies mailed to thousands across the continent to now the printed copies still mailed out by \u201csnail mail\u201d and our Online Edition<\/a> as well as our Facebook page.<\/p>\n

We\u2019re all well aware of how the world of literature and communications are changing and INDIAN LIFE is adapting and changing to reach as many people as possible.<\/p>\n

When our founders were thinking of placing a publication in every Native home across North America, they were thinking of an actual copy of our newspaper arriving in everyone\u2019s mailbox. 21st<\/sup> Century electronics has changed all that. Now, it is possible for a virtual copy of our INDIAN LIFE to arrive on subscribers\u2019 smartphones, tablets, laptops, and desktop PCs.\u00a0 Who would have known back in 1979, that this would be possible for little or no cost?\u00a0 Wow, we didn\u2019t even use computers back then!<\/p>\n

One of those who may have never heard of INDIAN LIFE had it not been for the electronic \u201ctransformation\u201d is a young up-and-coming musician, Skyler Roulette. Born and raised in Germany by a First Nations father and German mother who met in Manitoba, Skyler was introduced to INDIAN LIFE on the Sandy Bay First Nation.<\/p>\n

Skyler Roulette<\/p><\/div>\n

Skyler didn’t have a great life growing up. His father was an alcoholic and quite abusive to his mom and him. It got so bad his mom finally took Skyler and his siblings and left but the abuse didn\u2019t stop. There were boyfriends coming and going and they were also abusive to Skyler and his family.<\/p>\n

His dad died at a young age and not too long after, his mom passed on.\u00a0 Skyler was placed in an orphanage for five years until family members back on the Sandy Bay First Nation worked with German authorities to allow him to come to Canada and back to Sandy Bay.<\/p>\n

It was there that Skyler met one of our columnists, Becky Kew, who runs a youth centre on the reserve. One of the first activities they did was distribute our newspaper throughout the reserve.\u00a0 Through the pages of INDIAN LIFE, Skyler was introduced to Jesus and His life-changing message.<\/p>\n

\u201cI kept hearing about the good news of Jesus over and over again and I thought to myself, ‘it would be nice to get saved but I didn\u2019t know how and I ended up telling myself naaaahhh, I can still walk the Jesus Road when I’m like 70 or 80 years old.’ I said that because I wasn\u2019t ready to give up my other lifestyle\u2014dating girl after girl and drinking, recording music and cursing. I called it my Monday to Saturday lifestyle. It got worse and worse but I kept getting better and better in hiding the spiritual emptiness in my life. So I kept going to church.\u201d<\/p>\n

Skyler wondered about how he could have peace and joy in his life. \u201cIt was just so hard to understand that I could receive peace in my life so easily. After what I had been through growing up in Germany and for a short time in Canada, peace was really what I needed.<\/p>\n

Album cover for Skyler’s “Colourful”<\/p><\/div>\n

I kept asking myself: \u201cWhat do I have to do to be able to go to heaven when I die and receive eternal peace?\u00a0 Do I gotta go to church more? Learn\u00a0some of those verses in my Bible or maybe record a song about it? \u201cI just couldn\u2019t figure it out\u00a0for days, weeks and months.\u201d<\/p>\n

Then tragedy struck the Sandy Bay First Nation.\u00a0 His friend died in a New Year\u2019s Eve fire one year ago. After some time grieving the loss of his friend, Skyler decided it was time to accept the abundant life Jesus offers.<\/p>\n

Our editor, Jim Uttley, interviewed Skyler recently where he shared his amazing story. Soon his life story will be published in INDIAN LIFE. His transformative message can also be heard through his music on iTunes. He’s just released a new album in collaboration with Grammy-nominated artist Fresh IE.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"This charity has been certified by the Canadian Council of Christian Charities. Charities that display our Seal of Accountability demonstrate ongoing compliance with high standards of financial and organizational integrity. To find out more about this charity or other Certified charities, visit <\/strong>giveconfidently.ca<\/strong><\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Submitted by Intertribal Christian Communications We have often been told that Intertribal Christian Communications is Canada\u2019s best kept secret. In spite of the fact we\u2019ve been around since 1979 and our literature and resources go to every province and territory, many people still have never heard of us or may… More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":24439,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ts_fic_featured_image_caption":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[137],"tags":[240,148],"series":[],"class_list":["post-24435","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-charities","tag-religion"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cccc.org\/news_blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24435","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cccc.org\/news_blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cccc.org\/news_blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cccc.org\/news_blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/18"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cccc.org\/news_blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24435"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.cccc.org\/news_blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24435\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cccc.org\/news_blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24439"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cccc.org\/news_blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24435"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cccc.org\/news_blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24435"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cccc.org\/news_blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24435"},{"taxonomy":"series","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cccc.org\/news_blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/series?post=24435"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}