Susan Gingell – Saskatoon Insight Meditation Community

Eight Guided Community Conversations about Whiteness, Racism, and Antiracism

When/where

Day/time: Sundays, 1:30-3:45 pm
Dates: Jan 11 & 25, Feb 8 & 22, Mar 8 & 22, Apr 5 & 19, 2026
Location: Round Prairie Library, 250 Hunter Road #170, Saskatoon.

Registration

Registration required through the Events portal Saskatoon Public Library (SPL).
https://saskatoonlibrary.ca/events-guide/event/13830

Mindfully Unwinding Whiteness (MUW) is intended for “white”/Euro-Canadian participants because, as Ajay Parasram and Alex Khasnabish explain in Frequently Asked White Questions, it would be “unfair to non-white participants to have to offer . . . training and support” to white participants and also “unfair to expect white people to understand the politics of race when the very operation of racial politics in Canada has encouraged them to not think or talk about race lest they appear to be racist.” Please be prepared to answer when registering why you want to participate.

MUW will be offered free of charge thanks to partners the SPL, the Saskatoon Foundation, and the Saskatoon Insight Meditation Community.

Program Description

MUW invites participants to mindfully explore their educations in race and whiteness, and to cultivate understanding of the inevitable internalizing of racism in racist cultures. We’ll focus mostly on the invention of race and whiteness at the outset of European imperialism and colonialism, on interpersonal and systemic racisms, and on anti-Indigenous racism and antiracism. Conversations will, however, attend to a range of racialized identities and invite consideration of racism’s intersections with other oppressions. MUW aims to both foster reconciliation understood as relational repair and build support for Indigenous resurgence. Our sessions will familiarize participants with antiracist strategies, practicing interventions when observing interpersonal racism or systemic protection of the racialized status quo.

Mindfulness will be taught and practiced at each gathering, encouraging a gentle but intentional focussing on the present moment while with steadiness observing our thoughts and feelings. Mindfulness can thus help us regulate our emotions while discussing emotionally charged topics like racism and other oppressions. Framing the unwinding of whiteness within mindfulness and compassion practice invites a kind, non-shaming approach to such discussions while consciously pursuing difficult truths about race and racism.

Facilitator

Susan Gingell is a Euro-Canadian immigrant to Turtle Island/North America, grateful to live on Treaty 6 territory and the homeland of the Métis/Metis.

8 Guided Conversations About Whiteness, Racism & Antiracism

This community learning opportunity uses mindfulness to explore whiteness, racism, and antiracism in eight guided conversations.

Mindfulness, which will be taught and practiced at each gathering, encourages a gentle but intentional focusing on the present moment while with steadiness observing our thoughts and feelings. Mindfulness can thus help us deal with difficult emotions and situations. Because racism is such an emotionally charged topic, framing the unwinding of whiteness within mindfulness practice invites a kind, non-shaming approach to conversations while engaged in an honest pursuit of difficult truths about “race” and racism.

Mindfully Unwinding Whiteness is intended for “white”/Euro-Canadian participants because, as Ajay Parasram and Alex Khasnabish explain in Frequently Asked White Questions, it would be “unfair to non[-]white participants in public or educational settings to have to offer both training and emotional support to the white people around them” but also “unfair to expect white people to understand the politics of race when the very operation of racial politics in Canada has encouraged them to not think or talk about race lest they appear to be racist.”

In Mindfully Unwinding Whiteness’s guided conversations, we will pay particular attention to the invention and sustaining of whiteness, and to anti-Indigenous racism, but will also more briefly consider racisms faced by others. Learning resources include Tovi Scruggs-Hussein’s series of articles Mindfulness for Racial Healing – Mindful, Parasram and Khasnabish’s Frequently Asked White Questions, and Michelle Good’s Truth Telling: Seven Conversations about Indigenous Life in Canada; individual online readings and videos; and guest speakers/session co-leaders.

When/where

6:45 – 8:45 pm Mondays
Jan 6, Jan 20, Feb 3, Feb 24, Mar 3, Mar 17, Mar 31, Apr 14

Free of charge at the Round Prairie Library.

Registration

Details and registration on the SPL website
https://saskatoonlibrary.ca/events-guide/event/12417287

Facilitators

Jeanne Corrigal is Metis from the Prince Albert area. She has worked as a public educator in reconciliation for 40 years through film, storytelling, and teaching. She originated and has twice taught an Unwinding Whiteness course. She is a certified teacher in Insight Meditation and Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction and has taught mindfulness for 15 years. One of her first teachers in kind, loving presence was Cree Elder Jim Settee.

Susan Gingell is a Euro-Canadian immigrant to Turtle Island grateful to live on Treaty 6 territory and the homeland of the Métis/Metis. At the University of Saskatchewan, she taught decolonizing & transnational literatures in English and Women’s & Gender Studies. A 10-year member of Iskwewuk E-wichiwitochik/Women Walking Together, she helped resource the first Unwinding Whiteness course; completed the Saskatoon Antiracism Network’s trauma-infused antiracism training; and participates in the peer-led Post-Unwinding Whiteness Project.