Prize-winning author Louise Bernice Halfe-Sky Dancer will join fellow Saskatchewan writers Ken Wilson and Jesse Rae Archibald-Barber for a Book Night panel on Tuesday, May 19, at the Artesian as part of the Cathedral Village Arts Festival.
Halfe, whose Cree name is Sky Dancer, recently published her seventh book, wîhtamawik/Tell Them: On a Life of Inspiration. In it, she compares the creative process to childbirth, describing the excruciating search for relief and the explosive release of ideas. The panel will explore the role of land in their writings and efforts toward reconciliation, though Halfe expects the conversation to evolve organically.
Festival Details
The six-day festival begins on Victoria Day, May 18, with a kickoff parade at 11:30 a.m. and runs through May 23. Events include a street fair, beer tent, music, crafts, artwork, children's activities, and movies at various sites in Cathedral Village.
Halfe's Journey
Halfe, a 70-something Indigenous mother of two, has lived near Saskatoon for 45 years with her husband Peter Butt. She was born on an Alberta First Nation and forced into the Blue Quill Residential School, which tried to erase her Indigenous language. She later rediscovered Cree and uses it in her work.
She began writing poetry as a teenager, describing it as "pity pot poetry" at first. Later, while living in northern Saskatchewan, she found inspiration in nature, taking her pen and journal into the woods to observe and write.
Halfe was appointed to the Order of Canada in 2024 and has served as Saskatchewan's and Canada's Parliamentary Poet Laureate. She also won the 2017 Griffin Latner Writers Trust Poetry Prize.
Panel Discussion
The Book Night panel starts at 7 p.m. at the Artesian. Halfe is eager to engage with the audience, saying, "I will be open to whatever direction the people take me. It's always a fresh challenge to think about new things and to be urged along."
For more information, visit the festival's website at cvaf.ca.
