Tag: truth and reconciliation

Jordan-Fenton, Christy (Fort St John, BC)

Memberships: Writer’s Union, Federation of BC Writers, CANSCAIP, CWILL, Connected North facilitator, ProWritingAid Ambassador/facilitator, Sefirot instructor

Some awards and nominations: 10 Best Books of 2010 Globe & Mail, 2x BC Book Prize finalist, 3x USBBY Outstanding International Books Honor List, 2 x Skipping Stones Honor Book, 4x Best Books for Kids & Teens, starred selection, Canadian Children’s Book Centre, 2x Children’s Literature Roundtables of Canada Information Book Award nomination, Best Bets OLA, Golden Oak Award, First Nation Communities Read Selection in addition to 2x shortlisted, numerous readers choice awards AB, NS, ON, AK…

Christy Jordan-Fenton is the author of four award-winning and bestselling books about her Inuvialuk mother (in-law) Margaret Olemaun Pokiak-Fenton and her time attending a high Arctic Residential School in the 1940s. Christy’s poetry, short stories, and creative nonfiction have appeared in literary magazines and anthologies since she was 17. As a professional touring storyteller, Christy facilitates creative writing and storytelling workshops for over two hundred K-12 and adult audiences a year. She practices traditional ceremonies with the Kainai. Having been raised by a residential school survivor, she has been heavily involved in Truth and Reconciliation for nearly two decades.

Storytelling Sessions (with variations for busy learners and ELL students)

K-4 (45-60 min)interactive, multimedia storytelling around WHEN I WAS EIGHT and NOT MY GIRL. These sessions are trauma-informed, age-appropriate, and strengths-based, and are focussed on empathy building as well as taking inventory of personal resilience.

4-8, 9-12+ (60 min)interactive, multimedia storytelling that explores the life of Margaret Olemaun Pokiak-Fenton, as told in FATTY LEGS and A STRANGER AT HOME. Personal photos, and additional stories compliment these trauma-informed, age-appropriate sessions which deepen the context of Olemaun’s experiences. Olemaun’s acts of bravery and resilience are highlighted in ways that deepen students’ understanding of their own strengths.

PD 1.5-6 hrs

Educators are introduced to the story of Margaret Olemaun Pokiak-Fenton, her time attending a high Arctic residential school, and her brave journey sharing her story. Through a blend of modelling and deconstruction, educators are provided the tools for engaging as allies in Truth and Reconciliation and sharing stories in respectful, trauma-informed, age-appropriate, and strengths-based ways. Teachings are rooted in Christy’s experiences being raised by a residential school survivor, her close 20-year bond with Olemaun, 16 years working with K-12+, and her dedication to traditional ceremony.

Creative Workshops and Residencies (with variations for busy learners and ELL students)

Rev Up Your Creative Engines (45-90 min)

4+ Students learn to generate infinite story prompts and then turn those prompts into compelling loglines and blurbs.

Create Worlds that Inspire Stories (60-90 min)
3+ Students are introduced to the world-building elements used in FATTY LEGS and A STRANGER AT HOME, before learning to identify these elements in other popular/familiar stories, as they examine how to design worlds that inspire stories. Working with visual prompts, the students practice these techniques, before they are given an opportunity to create their own worlds with guided prompts.

Tea_2_TikTok (full day- 2 day)

3+ Youth/Elders Storykeeper/Storyteller workshop exploring the rights, responsibilities, and protocols around sharing stories intergenerationally, as youth and elders work collaboratively to create a written, oral, or visual story project. Especially ideal for Indigenous and new-comer youth and elders.

Other Writing Workshops and Residencies

Create Characters Who Make Stories Happen, Plotting the Journey, Create Beautiful Language, and Gamification for Imagination, Author as a Career. Modules can be combined for residencies. Custom residencies available.

In-person:

300 per 1 hr session, 400 per 1.5 hr session, 1000 for four 1 hr sessions, 1200 for five 1 hr sessions (can include aft/eve 1hr PD or parent event), 1200 per day for residencies, 1500 per day for PD

+GST + 60 travel surcharge per session or 240 per day within reasonable distance of a major city (inquire for remote locations)

Discounted group rates may be shared between schools.

Author is available during all breaks for questions, signing, and story club activities.

Virtual:

250 per 1 hr session, 800 for 4 sessions, 1000 for five sessions (can include 1 hr PD session)

+ GST

Follow-up questions via email will be answered, and teachers will be given temporary access to a recorded session, if requested.

Preferences

Size: Storytelling:5-500+ Creative Workshops: under 60

Venue: classroom, gymnasium, auditorium, learning commons, etc.

Tech: sessions include audio/visual components using an iPad. Author carries a projector, adaptors/dongles, and Apple TV, and all necessary sound equipment to include a headset mic. Author is experienced with using a variety of technologies, as well as integrating her own with existing systems, or setting up independent of school tech.

Contact Christy to book a visit:

    Currie, Susan (Brampton, Ontario)

    Member: Writer’s Union of Canada, Society of Children’s Books Writers and Illustrators. Winner: Second Story Press’s Aboriginal Writing Award. Finalist: Ontario White Pine Award, Ontario Silver Birch Award, CLA Book of the Year for Children, CODE Burt Award, Hackmatack Award, Manitoba Young Reader’s Choice Award, First Nations Communities Read Award. Several times included in Canadian Children’s Book Centre Best Books for Children and Teens. All ages from 8 and up. Up to 100 or so participants. $250 for one session, $450 for two, $675 for three, $900 for a full day (four sessions). Plus a travel fee of $0.50/km to and from Brampton, Ontario. Virtual visits $200 plus HST for 30-60 minutes, $150 plus HST for each subsequent session on the same day.

    Susan Currie is a passionate and dynamic elementary teacher in Brampton, Ontario. Before she entered the public school system, she earned a living as an accompanist, music director, choir director, dinner musician, leader of various music programs for children, and piano teacher. She’s the author of two middle grade novels, and two YA novels. Her novels all explore themes of friendship, music, navigating challenges, being resilient, and finding your identity. She has also written three nonfiction books on Indigenous topics. Susan has been on multiple Indigenous writing teams through the Elementary Federation of Ontario. She wrote lesson plans and prompts for Spark, Pearson’s online reading program. Susan is an adoptee who was in the foster care system briefly as a baby, and only learned of her Haudenosaunee heritage (Cayuga Nation, Turtle Clan) as an adult. She is happily married to John and has a wonderful daughter named Rachel.

    Susan is extremely flexible as a presenter and can customize a presentation to the needs of each venue. Through years in the classroom, she is very comfortable engaging in conversation with young people. In each presentation, she will include readings from her books and a Q and A. Possible topics could include the following, but please reach out to discuss your needs as Susan will happily customize a session.

    • Friendship, strategies for building your voice, facing down bullies
    • Notable Indigenous figures like Autumn Peltier; telling how she has fought to protect water around the world; sharing how you can help
    • The history of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy and the Cayuga Nation, including life long ago, the impact of the Indian Act, and the rise of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission; what you can do to help with reconciliation
    • Susan’s own history as an adoptee who later learned her Cayuga heritage
    • Raising awareness of social inequities, such as institutionalized racism, the limited rights of foster children, and differences in opportunities based on socioeconomic status; sharing how you can advocate for others in your immediate community and around the world
    • What it is like to be a writer, with focus on the process of writing a novel, and the steps you go through to have a published book

    Susan is also delighted to do writing workshops with small groups (no more than 15 or so). Topics might include the following, but please reach out to discuss your needs as Susan will happily customize a session.

    • Building exciting scenes or characters
    • Fun ways to edit your work that bring your story to vivid life
    • Finding your creative voice
    • Using other art forms to inspire your writing – paintings, pieces of music, dance, etc. Writing a story based on one of these.
    • Telling a story from your life in a dramatically compelling way
    • Writing effective and interesting dialogue
    • Creating a character driven plot

    Susan’s Books:

    Basket of Beethoven (Fitzhenry & Whiteside, 2001)

    Grades 4-8

    Sam, whose single mom is so strapped for cash that she can barely afford food, talks the privileged Helen into teaching him how to play the piano. He has to keep up his end of the bargain, which involves getting rid of the threatening bullies who plague her. But anything is worth having an outlet for the music inside him. Themes: friendship, family, strategies for standing up to bullies, resiliency, courage, music, creativity, imagination.

    The Mask that Sang (Second Story Press, 2016)

    Grades 4-8

    Cass learns about her Indigenous identity via a mysterious Haudenosaunee mask that shows her visions and sings to her. Through her friendship with Degan, an Indigenous boy, she uncovers what the mask is trying to tell her. Themes: magic realism, bullies, resiliency, systemic racism, residential schools, foster care, loss of identity, found friends, Indigenous history in Canada.

    Haudenosaunee: the People and Nations (Saunders/Beech Street, 2023)

    Grades 4-12

    This nonfiction book explores the history of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy, and the impact of the Indian Act on Indigenous peoples in Canada. It also tells about the Truth and Reconciliation Commission and ways that ordinary people can help to fulfil the calls to action. It highlights how the Haudenosaunee are fighting to regain their language and culture.

    Amazing Women in Canada: Autumn Peltier (Saunders/Beech Street, 2024)

    Grades 3-12

     This nonfiction book tells about Autumn Peltier, who has become a water warrior on the global stage, fighting for the protection of water around the world, and advocating for the rights of people on reserves to have clean water. She has shown resiliency in her mission, not backing down even in the face of negative criticism.

    Indigenous People and Nations: Cayuga (Saunders/Beech Street 2026)

    Grades 4-12

     This nonfiction book tells about the history of the Cayuga Nation, one of the six nations of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy. While highlighting ways that the Cayuga lived in the past, it also explores the impact of the Indian Act, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, and the fight to revitalize Cayuga language and culture.

    Fierce Voice (Common Deer Press, 2025)

    Grades 6-12

    This YA novel is the sequel to Iz the Apocalypse (described below). Iz has everything she’s ever wanted: she’s found the foster home of her dreams and is attending the prestigious music school she moved heaven and earth to get into. But secrets from her past keep threatening to spill into the present, and Iz is sure that her newfound loved ones will abandon her if they learn of her terrible history. When she meets Skye, a young foster child with her own terrible secret, Iz must make a dreadful choice—one that could free them both from their demons or completely destroy everything Iz has fought so hard for. Is raising her voice worth the risk? Themes: advocating for foster children; music education; found family; adoption; finding your own power.

    Fierce Voice is listed by CBC Books – 23 Canadian books for tweens & teens to read this fall

    Iz the Apocalypse (Common Deer Press, 2023)

    Grades 6-12

    This YA novel is about a musically gifted foster child who does whatever is necessary to be able to attend a prestigious international high school for music and to have a voice of her own. Themes: challenges foster children face, including the way that a disrupted education eliminates many possibilities for the future; how past trauma impacts the present; creativity and the arts; finding identity; loneliness and found family.

    All Venues. Equipment required: a glass of water, lunch if she’s staying for the day. A table to spread her things out on. A microphone for larger groups or in the gym. A screen and projector for presenting slides and doing shared writing.

    Contact Susan to book a visit: