This is for a past event. For current events, please visit our Upcoming Events page.
See below for a summary of the day, and some additional information about the Fish Lake Métis Settlement, pictures on Facebook, and links to additional articles.
All Our Relations:
Wisdom Teachings from Indigenous and Insight Meditation Traditions
This retreat will weave Indigenous and Buddhist ways of knowing to connect with Nature as our guide and teacher. Gentle reflective practices will touch our interconnection with all beings, our innate wisdom, and our capacity for peace. This retreat will nurture a coming home, to our natural way of being.
With Jeanne Corrigal and Tina Settee
Saturday, September 7, 2019
10 am – 4 pm
This retreat will be held at the Fish Lake Métis Settlement (in photo), founded by Elder Jim Settee, in 1935. This lake was home to many Métis families until the 1990s, and is still cared for today by these same families, whose efforts resulted in provincial heritage status for this area, in 2012.
Please email contact@saskatooninsight.com to let us know you are coming. We will then send you directions, and try to connect folks who wish to car pool. Fish Lake is 190 kilometres north of Saskatoon, near Christopher Lake.
Tina Settee is a granddaughter of Jim Settee, and a loving caretaker of Fish Lake. Jeanne Corrigal is a Meditation teacher certified by Spirit Rock Meditation Centre and the University of Massachusetts Medical School, and currently a participant in the 2017 – 2021 Teacher Training at the Insight Meditation Society. One of her first teachers in loving presence was Elder Jim Settee.
There will be an opportunity to offer dana/donation to Tina, Jeanne, and for the upkeep of Fish Lake.
September 10 update
Hello dear SIMC community,
30 of us spent the day with Tina Settee, at Fish Lake, this past weekend, September 7. Jeanne has a special connection with Tina’s grandfather, the late Elder Jim Settee, who was one of her first teachers of loving presence.
Jeanne provided this bit of historical significance for this site:
Jim and other Métis folks established Fish Lake in 1935, through negotiation with the provincial government for a home place for Métis families who were displaced when Prince Albert National Park was formed. The tourists who soon arrived were granted long term cabin leases, but the Métis were not legally able to stay in their existing cabins in the park, or to live on reserves with their extended families, and faced racism and were not welcomed in nearby towns. The Métis lifestyle did not jive with the clear-cutting of timber that was required in order to own private land under the Homestead Act, but was a more sustainable lifestyle with the land, which they were able to maintain at Fish Lake for several decades. In the mid 1980’s, unlike the long term leases granted the tourists and other newer local residents, the Métis leases were cancelled by the government, and their homes bulldozed to make way for a water ski and snow machine recreation area on Fish Lake. Then, in 2011, through the efforts of many local Métis and with some assistance from the film that Jeanne made about Elder Jim Settee, the local Métis petitioned for, and were granted, provincial heritage status for the area. Now, the Fish Lake Métis Settlement Community once again has a home that they can gather in.
Tina shared some stories of her family and of Fish Lake, took us on a walk to one of the historical home sites, and had a bunch of us making the best bannock ever! Jeanne also lead us in some meditation which combined her Buddhist and Indigenous teachings, both of which connect with our natural way of being, and with all our relations, including nature and ancestors.
If you would like to know a little bit more about the history of the Fish Lake Métis Settlement, you can ask to join their Facebook page. Tina will give you ‘permission’ to join, and the page will give more insight into the historic and current issues of this community.
Tina sent this message thanking us for our gift of dana, and to let us know that it will enable them to install a permanent sign at the entrance to Fish Lake, which they have been hoping to be able to do for some time. Tina says:
This past weekend, Sept. 7th, was a special day of sharing with this lovely community.
Thank you Jeanne Corrigal and Andrea 💕 for this opportunity to be part of this gathering. A huge Thank you goes out to the Community for your gift🙏💕 much Gratitude.
Hiy hiy
We are getting a Fish Lake Métis Heritage Sign!!😊
We have shared Tina’s pictures from the day and a few of our own to the Saskatoon Insight Meditation Community Facebook page and Fish Lake event. You’re welcome to add your pictures to the event page too.
With every good wish,
Jeanne Corrigal and the Saskatoon Insight Meditation Community
Links to related articles
CBC Radio Unreserved
Forced to live on roadsides: the dark history of Métis road allowances
Indigenous Peoples Atlas of Canada
Road Allowance People
CBC News Saskatoon
‘All we can do is forgive’: Descendants of Métis trapper visit site of his eviction by federal government
Heritage Saskatchewan
gee meyo pimawtshinawn (It was a Good Life): Saskatchewan Métis Road Allowance Memories – a living heritage project
Leah Dorion
Recent Métis Voyageur Lobstick Pole Projects Funded by The Saskatchewan Arts Board