SaskEnergy proud to sponsor Fireside with Lyndon for another season
Several times a year, Remai Modern in Saskatoon fills with an audience curious to participate in an evening that stewards Indigenous engagement and honours Indigenous communities and groups with openness, transparency and dialogue. The event, known as Fireside with Lyndon, presented by SaskEnergy, is an intergenerational and cross-disciplinary program regarded as a unique opportunity for in-depth and sometimes challenging conversations.
“We are delighted to once again be part of this Indigenous speaker series,” says Joseph Daniels, SaskEnergy’s Director of Indigenous Engagement. “At SaskEnergy, we are committed to supporting the reparations of the relationship between Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples. Our sponsorship of Fireside with Lyndon is one of the ways that we are doing that.”
One pillar of SaskEnergy's community investment program is Indigenous Engagement and, specifically, providing support to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission's Calls to Action.
Hosted by traditional knowledge keeper and storyteller Lyndon J. Linklater, Fireside with Lyndon is a free series open to the public.
“Education is the answer. That’s how we change things, so that’s what I do,” explains Lyndon, a proud citizen of the Thunderchild First Nation (Plains Cree) in Treaty 6 with roots in Couchiching First Nation (Fort Francis, Ontario) in Treaty 3.
Beyond his role as Indigenous Relations Advisor at Remai Modern, Lyndon has been teaching about truth and reconciliation for more than two decades and has spoken to tens of thousands of people, delivering awareness and enlightenment on Treaty and First Nation worldview.
“Lyndon wants people to know the truth of the colonization of this nation. It’s a very difficult topic but he takes people on that journey in such a compassionate way. He’s very generous, patient and disarmingly funny. We’re so grateful to him for sharing his knowledge both with our staff and our visitors,” says Aileen Burns, Co-Executive Director & CEO of Remai Modern.
Last year, SaskEnergy had the opportunity to support these public conversations, two virtually and one in-person, featuring traditional birch bark canoe makers Pinock Smith and Rodney Sayers, historian Dr. Rose Roberts, and Wanuskewin’s chief archaeologist Dr. Ernie Walker. This program drew approximately 50 guests per event, totalling approximately 150 guests.
The upcoming Fireside with Lyndon program features four extraordinary events over the next 12 months, anticipating an exceptional roster of Fireside guests.
The first one kicks off on June 15 as part of National Indigenous History Month and National Indigenous Peoples Day. Lyndon will speak with retired RCMP Sergeant Karen Pelletier, beginning at 7:00 p.m. in the Remai Modern atrium.
Iskwew kapiw apih Musqua, known publicly as Karen Pelletier, is from the Musqua family of Keeseekoose First Nation and is a proud Anishinaabe/Nehiyaw mother and grandmother. She comes from a family of RCMP members that includes her mother and two sisters. She also had family members who served in the Canadian Armed Forces during the First and Second World Wars and in peacetime. She joined policing to protect and serve her people the same way her family has and continues to do. Pelletier served with the RCMP for more than 20 years before retiring in September of 2021. Today she is the Director of Child Welfare and Social Development for the Federation of Sovereign Indigenous Nations. Together they will discuss kinship, decolonization, and forging a better future.
For more information about Fireside with Lyndon, visit remaimodern.org.
