Pinehouse Lake Workshop Tour 2022
Artist in residence Jane Laxdal recants about the three-week Cultural Arts program that took place during June 2022 in Pinehouse Lake, SK.
“It was a very good opportunity for students to learn about and do some of the traditional indigenous arts of the community.” Said Laxdal. “The Minahik Waskahigan Elementary School and the community of Pinehouse Lake are very interested in continuing their cultural arts and reintroducing indigenous cultural arts.”
This art residency program was planned to involve the students and community during their annual Elders’ gathering.
As a teacher that has lived and taught in the community for over 20 years, Laxdal felt very confident in learning about and helping to teach these arts to the students as well as connecting with the community artists to help support this learning.
“With the support of the Saskatchewan Cultural Exchange, I was able to plan and carry out two weeks of lessons at the elementary school.”
The third week was spent finishing some of the students’ projects in the school and continuing the cultural arts they had learned along with the Elders at the communities annual Northern Saskatchewan Elders Gathering.”
“To plan the project, I consulted with school principal Rosalena Smith about cultural arts projects that students would learn and work on during the residency.”
The projects were planned to match the age level of the students.
“I worked with all the elementary students from kindergarten to grade six. The projects were nature collages, dream catchers,
felt tobacco pouches, finger weaving and beadwork pins and key chains.’
All of these projects went very well and Laxdal was able to offer more than one project to some of the grade levels.
During the third week of the residency, the cultural arts that were carried over to the Elders Gathering were finger weaving, dream catchers and small beading projects. The Annual Elders Gathering was a great time of celebration for all the visitors and the whole community. Having the students able to work alongside the Elders was a good opportunity for everyone and there were many other cultural and arts activities going on during the whole week.
It is the hope to find ways to bring more cultural arts to the community such as hoop dancing, ribbon skirt and shirt sewing and other possibilities.
“We appreciate the support from the Saskatchewan Cultural Exchange and the value of this support is shown in many ways in the school and the community.”
