When First Nations issues briefly grabbed national attention with the housing crisis in Attawapiskat late last year, and then with the First Nations-Crown meeting earlier this year, many seasoned media talking heads couldn't help but cluck their tongues and say they'd seen it all before.

"Every few years or so something like Attawapiskat gets our attention. We all feel terrible. Then it fades away and we forget about it," many of them said.

The general view seemed to be that the problems of aboriginal Canada are just too depressingly intractable -- and too far out of sight and out of mind -- for them to occupy our collective attention for too long.