Success Stories

Increasing involvement in cultural experiences: Back to Batoche gets record attendance in 2023

Themed the ‘Year of the Youth’, the 2023 event was designed to engage more young people.

Increasing equity and belonging for youth: Teaching hoop dancing helps build cultural connections

Funds Reaching Métis Communities, Preserving Culture

Engaging Youth in Creativity Important to Métis Artist

Rooted in Tradition: How Dream Brokers Created a Medicinal Plant Teaching Project

Take­-home Arts and Craft Kits Popular During Pandemic

Mapping a Path to Reconciliation

Creating a Village in the Spirit of Reconciliation

How One Newcomer Youth is Championing Truth and Reconciliation Calls to Action

Walking the Path to Reconciliation

How Rivers West District is Creating Connections and Bridging Gaps

Leonard Montgrand: Leading Youth in Discovering of Métis Culture

How a canoe trip can teach youth about teamwork and leadership.

Li Michif nitooni katawashishin

Michif is a Beautiful Language

Living the River's Stories

Discovering our past down the South Saskatchewan River

Métis Cultural Camp Strengthens Youth Identity

Culture camp nurtures relationships

Buffalo Pound Round Dance helps to highlight Métis culture

Ashley Norton, co-founder of the Wiichihiwayshinawn Foundation (“We are Helpers” in Michif), brought together a group of dancers from all over Saskatchewan to perform a contemporary jig dance at the Ice and Fire Festival, held in Regina, February 2013.

Language festival promotes cultural pride

“Love Your Language, Speak with Pride.” This was the message bestowed on over 450 First Nations students at the province’s first-ever Indigenous language Festival.

John Lamodigiere: Aboriginal Myth Buster

John Lagimodiere has been busy myth busting with his Aboriginal Awareness Training sessions.

Interactive workshop helps students learn about Métis tradition

Gravelbourg’s Camille Bell was invited by teacher Anita Clarke to Mossbank School where Bell spent a day presenting Métis traditions to elementary school children.

Grants make a difference for First Nations and Métis Groups

The Aboriginal Arts and Culture Leadership Grant (AACL) was launched by SaskCulture in 2007 following a funding model developed by the Saskatchewan Arts Board. The AACL grant is aimed at increasing the capacity in Aboriginal communities.

Popular fiddle fest continues to grow

The annual John Arcand Fiddle Fest has come a long way in 15 years. It has grown from offering a few fiddle work-shops to an eventful, four-day festival, held at Windy Acres in Saskatoon, featuring concerts, competitions, dances and performances.

Duck Lake identity shaped by vivid heritage

Duck Lake has been busy with many projects aimed at bringing its history alive through arts, education and celebration. The area surrounding Duck Lake is rich with culture and the community has been busy working on ways it can reflect its vivid history.

Remembering James Brady

Brady, a veteran of WWII, educated and mobilized Métis communities on the rights of squatters on Crown lands and the establishment of Métis political groups that sought political and cultural protection for Métis peoples.

Métis Culture Camp builds connections between youth and Elders

Increasing preservation of cultural teachings: Podcast project shares Métis values and lifestyles

New Network of Landholders Upholds Treaty Rights

Finding Bresaylor: Museum Shares Métis Story

Métis Mondays with the Battlefords Boys and Girls Club

Mentorship Provides Opportunity to Share Métis Culture

Métis Celebration Encourages Reconciliation

Gathering Focuses on Reconciliation and Relationship-Building

Incorporating Land-based Learning into Programming

A Lens on Culture

Culture Days: Creating the Platform to Share Cultures and Engage with Communities

Sharing Métis Culture as Part of Reconciliation

Métis Cultural Immersion

Learning about Métis traditions during Culture Days

New Skills Help Northern Youth Share Stories and Culture

Creative project provides technological opportunities

Moving Forward, Never Forgetting - Encouraging intercultural dialogue and empathy through art

It has been said that art has the capacity to express the inexpressible, and a new exhibition at the MacKenzie Art Gallery (MAG) hopes to give a voice to what often goes unsaid, and attract a large audience in doing so.

Living Histories – Treaty education in living sky school Division

There is more than one way to tell a story and the living sky school Division is bringing Treaty education to life through cultural experiences.

Production shares important Métis history

Live theatre has the power to touch audiences in a way few other art forms can. The play The Trial of Louis Riel has been reaching out and touching people with its story for 47 years.

Students recognize First Nations and Métis leaders

Building community ties and connections is challenging for large, rural school divisions. However, some divisions make these connections a vital part of their students’ education.

Métissage: collaboration increases reach

Amazing connections can be made, and powerful ideas can blossom when organizations come together to work collaboratively on a project.

New partnership sparks Métis interest

In its first year, the partnership between SaskCulture and Gabriel Dumont Institute (GDI), intended to increase interest and awareness of funding available to preserve Métis cultural heritage, has resulted in an overwhelming response.

Pinehouse brings communities together

This past spring, one small northern community decided to host an event that would bring together the northern communities together to share, learn and celebrate Métis culture.

mispon provides opportunities for indigenous filmmakers

In March 2006, the University of Regina’s department of Media Production and Studies brought in wellknown Canadian Aboriginal filmmaker, Alanis Obomsawin, as a keynote speaker for what would turn out to be mispon’s first biannual film festival.

Tapping into the Northern Spirits

As reality shows, such as Canadian Idol or So Youth Think you Can Dance, continue to capture the attention of aspiring talent, Saskatchewan’s northern youth have an even better opportunity to show their stuff.

Youth connect to traditional land use at winter camp

Métis Local Connects Community Through Moccasin-making

Workshop Helps Preserve Métis Traditional Art Form

New Action Groups Focus on Reconciliation in Saskatoon

Partnership Develops videos to help Share Indigenous Culture

Popular Indigenous Peoples' Day Gathering Goes virtual

Advancing Reconciliation Beyond Words

Gathering Opens Conversation on Care of Ancestral Objects and Knowledge

Restoring Worldview: Centralizing Traditional and Holistic Birthing Practices in First Nations Communities

Helping Indigenous Peoples Trace Their Roots

Karon Shmon: ‘I feel like I am innately a teacher’

Wrapped in Love: The Moss Bag Project

Family Camp Brings Together Community and Traditions

Learning traditions of your community

Dance Opportunity to Explore Métis Culture

Dance project gives Saskatchewan residents a chance to learn Métis Culture

Bridging the Gap

Young participants recently had the opportunity to spend a week surviving without many of our modern conveniences.

Entertainment, eating, education and engagement create recipe for success at Folkfest’s Indian & Métis Pavilion

Every year, people in Saskatoon travel around the world learning about different cultures – only to find out what they have in their own backyard.

Centennial celebration brings communities together

The village of Lestock is moving into the future using music and dance to celebrate differences and bring diverse cultures together.

Balcarres students recognize the role of First Nations and Métis people in their community

In some communities, role models are merely people to be admired. While they also admire their role models in Balcarres, some students at Balcarres Community School are also preserving their role models for “posterity”.

Wanuskewin draws a crowd for Culture Days

“Culture Days at Wanuskewin Heritage Park was a great success this year. We were expecting around 100 people, but throughout the day over 500 people visited the park," says Cameron McRae, visitor services manager, Wanuskewin Heritage Park.

Prince Albert Historical Society and Treaty Education

Teachers from local school divisions from across the curriculum and grade levels participated in the two- day workshop to collaboratively create three lessons plans in a given subject and grade level that supported Treaty and Aboriginal education.

Showcasing the works of Jim Settee: Keeping Saskatchewan stories alive

Thanks to a partnership between Central Urban Métis Federation Inc. and the Métis Cultural Development Fund, Saskatchewan filmmaker Jeanne Corrigal was able to tour her film, Jim Settee: The Journey Home, a documentary film about the life of Elder Jim Set

Storytelling important to preserving history & tradition

“So much of contemporary Aboriginal art practice, whether it is visual, media, performing, or interdisciplinary art work, is rooted in our culture’s oral stories and customary knowledge,” explains Elwood Jimmy, Festival co-director.

2010 Year of the Metis

This year, the Back to Batoche festival featured a wide range of performances including Saskatchewan’s own Lindsay Knight (Eekwol) and Donny Parenteau - among others, as well as workshops.