Poet named as Battlefords writer in residence

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SkyBlue Morin is working on a number of projects right now. The Metis poet and writer currently has three books in the works, the first about her grandmother and the Michif language, the second a collection of Michif poetry, and the third, Sundance Serenade, a chronicling of her spiritual journey into the Cree culture and into sweat lodges and sundances.

In November, Morin also took on another project-acting as writer in residence for Living Sky School Division, the Lakeland Library Region, the North West Catholic School Division and the Northwest Nations Education Council.

The writer in residence program was developed by the partner organizations as a way to improve literacy skills among students and to increase cultural awarenss among students and the community at large.

As part of her writer in residence duties, Morin will be travelling to schools and libraries throughout the area, where she will conduct writing workshops for students in Grades 5 to 11.

At each workshop, Morin collects poems and short stories written by the students. By the time her contract as writer in residence ends in mid-April, she expects to have visited 14 schools and to have collected about 450 written works. The best poems and stories will then be selected and published in an anthology.

"Eventually, we're going to have a committee that will get together and look at all of the writing and will probably pick the top two from each class and those will go into the anthology," Morin said.

During her school visits, Morin reads one of her published poems or short stories to the students.

"I ask them questions about what they learned from the reading and what they understand," said Morin.

She continues the workshop by describing how she creates a poem or story. The first step, she said, is usually introducing a character or issue. Then she goes on to describe the character or issue, which then goes into the action or emotion of it. The last step is the conclusion-"What is the teaching, the message, the result?"

"So, I show them those four main areas in each of my writing and some students really like the format. They thought it was really easy to follow and it put more of their ideas into perspective," said Morin.

The students in the workshops can write about anything, but Morin encourages them to be as descriptive with their words as possible.

"I'm looking for lots of description from the students and that they really worked at their writing because anybody can just write down a few words and figure it to be poetry," said Morin.

"Instead of just saying rock, they could say smooth, slippery rock. Then you've added a few adjectives and you can remember it more. I try to get as much detail out of them as I can."

Although the main focus of Morin's workshops is teaching about writing poetry and short stories, she also talks to the students about the medicine wheel, the four directions and what they represent.

"I tell them what kind of animal they are based on Sun Bear's medicine wheel," she said. "That's kind of their reward when they've done their work, I tell them what kind of animal they are."

The lessons she shares with the students about the medicine wheel and the four directions will also be part of the anthology.

"Each chapter will be a direction of the medicine wheel," said Morin. "I'll speak about how the writing goes in those four directions, which I hope to have in the four colours."

About 100 submissions will be included in the anthology, and each student whose work is selected will get a copy of the book. Copies will also be given to their classroom and their school library.