Stardale day-long workshop a success in Melfort

Page 2

A day-long workshop hosted by the Stardale Women's Group helped aid women with self-determination and healing, and provided them with information on how to start similar groups in their own communities.

Participants for the workshop came in from various parts of the province, with a vast majority of them hailing from Saskatoon and Regina.

The one-day workshop was held Feb. 17, and according to one of the event's organizers, the time was meant to help others take the model established in Melfort - with the way Stardale is structured-back to their home communities to create similar organizations there.

"The better part of the morning went into going into the model, and the model's formatting, and how Stardale came to be," said Helen McPhaden, Stardale's coordinator.

The Stardale Women's Group is a program designed for women who deal with poverty and abuse in their lives. Through the program, the women are given access to therapy, to education, and to employment training.

The Stardale Women's Group utilizes many forms of therapy, from a form of art therapy -weaving on a loom- to group discussions on topics relevant to each women's situation.

Not only does the weaving act as a form of therapy, but it also helps build the women's self-esteem, as they learn how to create with a traditional, yet sometimes forgotten, form of Aboriginal applied arts. Also, it gives each woman the chance to learn a skill that is resurfacing as a cottage-type industry across North America.

The workshop also included a presentation by Stardale's weaving instructor, Linda Marien to round out the morning. In the afternoon, Shara Lynne Walker came in to talk about community development initiatives.

For one of the participants, the whole experience she had that weekend was something she was not expecting.

"Actually, I thought I was just there to help," said Mary St. Cyer, who was surprised by the fact that she became a participant in the workshop.