Contemplative Arts Festival of Saskatoon

Mini Festival
Sat. May 24, 2025

Morning Activities

A large white tipi stands on the lawn outside a church building. A portable sign reads GPUC.ca and Contemplative Arts Festival of Saskatoon, May 23 - 26 (dates from 2019) and Unplug & Connect.

Photo: Tipi on the lawn during the Contemplative Arts Festival of Saskatoon in 2019.

Lyndon LInklater talked about tipi raising (2023).

Lyndon J Linklater spoke about raising the tipi in 2023.


Tipi Raising

Knowledge Keeper Lyndon J Linklater will raise a tipi on the lawn outdoors, and share some traditional teachings and language about the tipi.

Smudge ceremony

Lyndon will offer a sacred smudge ceremony, giving thanks for the opportunity to gather and learn together on Treaty Six land and the homeland of the Métis Nation.

Traditional teachings

Lyndon J Linklater will share more stories and traditional teachings inside or around the tipi.

Free Drop in: Saturday May 24, 2025,
from 10:30 am to noon.
Location: on the lawn outside Grosvenor Park United Church, 407 Cumberland Ave South.
Chairs provided for those who need them.
In case of bad weather, we may move indoors for the teaching time.

Lunch

A bowl of soup and fried bannock. The soup looks rich and chunky with tomatos, vegetables and macaroni.

Soup and bannock. (facebook image)

Lunch: Soup and bannock

We will share a lunch of soup and bannock together. Donations welcome, suggested $5 per person.

Drop in: Saturday May 24,
from Noon to 1:00 p.m.
Location: Schnell Hall, lower level.

Afternoon Activities

Marisa Merasty-Buffalo
with Parker Longjohn.

Beading Workshop

Marisa Merasty-Buffalo will lead a beading workshop. This was a very popular activity at the Festival in 2024. All materials provided.

Workshop - spaces are limited.
Saturday May 24 from 1:00 to 3:15 pm.

Worshop fee $10.
Location: Schnell Hall.

A hand holds an orange pen, ready to write on the blank page of a notebook that has orange edges of the page and a white ribbon bookmark. The writer wears a grey knitted sweater. Image from lilartsy-333oj7zFsdg on unsplash.

Image by lilartsy on Unsplash.

Writing Workshop

Spend some time with a writer from the Saskatchewan Writers Guild.
To be announced.

Saturday May 24 from 1:00 am to 3:00 pm.

Workshop fee $10.
Location: Schnell Hall

A small birchbark basket sits on grass. The bark is folded and tied with dark brown roots to make an open box shape. The bark is brown on the outside and white on the inside. Image from Lyndon J Linklater.

Birchbark Basket - photo from Lyndon J Linklater.

Birchbark Craft Workshop

Lyndon J Linklater will teach how to make traditional birchbark baskets, canoes, or other artwork, and share some cultural teachings while we work together. All materials provided.

Workshop fee: $10.
Saturday May 24, 1:00 - 3:00 pm
Location: Schnell Hall.

A bearded man stands by a grove of tall pine trees, wearing a dark green cableknit cloak with a large hood covering most of his head, and holding a wooden walking stick.

Shawn Sanford Beck, visiting some tree neighbours.

GreenSpirit Chaplaincy Workshop:
Kything

Kything is a "psycho-spiritual technology", inspired by the fiction of Madeleine L'Engle, and developed by the priest and psychologist team of Louis M. Savary and Patricia H. Berne almost 40 years ago.  In this new revision of the technique by GreenSpirit Chaplain Shawn Sanford Beck, you will explore the theory and experience the practice of using your deep imagination to engage with the more-than-human persons of the green world around you.  Remember: Creation is always speaking; it is often we who are not listening. Kything will help you rectify that situation.

Saturday May 24th, 1:00 to 3:00 p.m.
Free workshop.

Photo of many paintbrushes sticking upwards out of jars and cans where they have been put to dry. There are more than 30 small brushes available, ready for a classroom of painters to start creating.

Paint brushes: photo from Unsplash.

Community Mural - What the World Needs

Art therapist Tracy Dudar invites Festival participants of all ages to engage in a creative and reflective art-making experience! Participants will have the opportunity to design art cards that express your thoughts on what the world needs—whether it’s more kindness, connection, joy, or something entirely unique to you. Using a variety of materials like collage, paint, markers, and recycled elements, you can create small, meaningful works of art that will become part of a mural to share with the Contemplative Arts Festival community.

No art experience needed—just an open heart and mind! Supplies will be provided. All the tiles will go together to create a community mural.

Saturday May 24, 1:00 to 3:15 pm
Free Drop-in.

Donna Aldous is a T'ai Chi Chih class leader. Head and shoulders portrait of a woman with grey hair, bangs swept softly to the side, and a gentle smile. She wears an open shirt with a graphic design in black and white and orange.

Donna Aldous leads T’ai Chi Chih classes.

T’ai Chi Chih class with Donna Aldous

T’ai Chi Chih is a moving meditation with far reaching benefits. It has been described as Joy Through Movement.  It is not exercise, and yet it is one of the best exercises you can do.  The 19 movements and 1 pose circulate and balance the body’s Chi (energy).  With the accumulation of Chi (Vital Force) through T’ai Chi Chih practice, permanent changes in the metabolism and the thinking process take place, and the renewed energy conditions the whole way of life. As changes occur, we get in touch with ourselves, and the world we see begins to change. Joy becomes our natural heritage.  
I hope you will join my class during the festival.  No special clothing or shoes are required.  Be comfortable.  Bring water and an inquisitive mind.  

Choice of two class times:
Class fee: $10 per class.
Saturday May 24, 1:00 - 2:00 pm.
and from 2:00 - 3:00 pm.
Location: Nursery Room

A young man and a woman are seated at a purple table, folding paper to make origami. In the foreground we see a small yellow origami animal, a black cat and an orange fox made from folded paper.

Origami at the Festival in 2023.
Photo by Matt Smith.

Origami with Nathaniel Trebish

Nathaniel Trebish (see Artists) will share the ancient art of paper folding and teach how to make a variety of origami pieces. For all ages, including beginners and those who have experience with origami.

Free Drop in:
Saturday May 24
from 1:00 pm to 3:15 pm.

Location: Purple Room

A dark green cloth labyrinth is spread on the floor at the back of a church sanctuary. The labyrinth lines are in rainbow colours from purple at the outer edges, blue, green, yellow, orange, and red at the centre.

Rainbow labyrinth at the Festival in 2023.
Many thanks to the Saskatoon Unitarians for the loan of this beautiful labyrinth.

Labyrinth Walk

Free drop-in:
Saturday May 24 1:00 - 4:30 pm

What is a Labyrinth Walk?

A labyrinth is a walking meditation. It has one path in to the centre and the same path leads the walker out of the labyrinth.

“Walking in” is a time to let go of all that keeps us from connecting more deeply with the Spirit – releasing the thoughts and illusions that might inhibit and distract us from connecting with the sacred.

The Centre is the place where we come to the centre of ourselves – a place within us where we meet the Divine, a place where the Spirit connects to our spirit. It can be a place of prayer or meditation as we sit or stand with the Spirit asking our questions, offering ourselves, and seeking guidance.

“Walking out” is a time to reflect on how we will integrate our experience of being at the centre into our daily living.

Location: Sanctuary.

Two men and two women are sitting in a church, looking across at each other while one speaks into a microphone. Behind, a tv screen reads Grosvenor Park United Church. Some people are listening, sitting in pews.

Discussion panel at the Festival in 2019.

Community Conversation

A conversation for all Festival participants to consider together:
- Theme question: What does the world need?
- What would folks like to experience at the next Contemplative Arts Festival of Saskatoon?

Shawn Sanford Beck will moderate the conversation.

Free Drop in:
Saturday May 24 from 3:15 to 4:15 pm.

Evening Performance

Free Flow performance

Guitar player - photo from Unsplash.

Saturday May 24, 7:30 p.m.

A musician from the Saskatoon Musicians Association will perform. - to be announced.

A writer from the Saskatchewan Writers Guild will read from their work. - to be announced.

Lyndon J Linklater and his wife Terri Bear-Linklater will speak and perform some songs.

Reception to follow.
Free.
Donations are appreciated to support the next Festival.