Telling Your Story: A Wonder Workshop for Older Youth and Adults

You have a story – and it’s all yours to tell. And no one can tell you it isn’t true.
And that’s why there’s an energy, an excitement, a “power” in it.
So many “official” stories are not personal stories but stories of power: “Who’s got it?
How did they get it” How do I get it back?”

But you have power – in your story.
And here you are invited to write / tell from your story.
It doesn’t have to be a Big Moment, but it could be.
It could involve a moment, a chance encounter with a person, a place, an animal.
A witness to a new life or a certain death.
It’s yours to tell. No one else can.

When we reach inside to know our stories –
(not outside to the theories and threats posing as stories)
– we change ourselves in the knowing.
From the inside out we begin again…

Join Madonna Hamel, Kevin Wesaquate and Joseph Naytowhow as they each guide us through the many days of our lives to find that one moment that was authentically us. Note: Workshop will be offered in-person and online but participant registration is limited.

Fee: $95 including PST Bring your own bagged lunch. Snacks and beverages provided! OPTIONAL pay as you go early group supper at the Val Marie Hotel afterward.

Location: Sky Story Studio, 103 1st Avenue, Val Marie, SK and Grasslands National Park

Etransfer to admin@skystory.ca

Madonna Hamel  is a writer-performer based in Val Marie, SK. She has traveled North America with her one-woman shows. She won columnist of the year for her weekly column Pop89, New York’s Best Radio award for her CBC Radio documentary on Lhasa de Sela and first place in Prairie Fire’s CNF contest. She is also a regular contributor to the likes of The Globe & Mail, Saskbooks, and Freelance magazine. She holds an annual summer workshop for young writers and has been facilitating workshops for years.

Kevin ‘POETIK’ Wesaquate is the founder of the Indigenous Poetry Society. A multi-disciplinary Indigenous arts leader, he works remotely from his home studio as a ‘Virtual Artist Teacher’ for Northern communities for the Taking IT Global, Connected North Program. Kevin has represented Saskatoon at the Canadian Individual Slam in Vancouver and has participated in the Canadian Festival of Spoken Word (CFSW). From Piapot First Nation, Kevin learned the value of a community – sahkihitok (love one another)

Joseph Naytowhow is an award winning Plains/Woodland Cree (nehiyaw) singer/songwriter, master storyteller and voice, stage and film actor from pakitahwâkan-sâkahikan Sturgeon Lake First Nation. He is renowned for his unique style of Cree/English storytelling, combined with original contemporary music and traditional drum and rattle songs. He currently serves as Cultural Advisor for the University of Saskatchewan College of Law.