Pushing to uplift Indigenous youth, artist voices in Saskatchewan
For Saskatchewan artist Shawn Cuthand, uplifting Indigenous voices is a calling.
Cuthand is a nehiyaw (Cree) and Kanien’kehá:ka (Mohawk) writer, comedian, producer, actor and director.
This week he begins his time as the University of Saskatchewan’s Indigenous storyteller-in-residence.
“I would just like to encourage students that if they want to get into the entertainment business that it actually is possible to do in Saskatchewan.,” Cuthand said.
During the next 12 weeks, Cuthand will be sharing his experience and expertise with students while balancing his comedy and continuing his work with the satirical newsgroup, ‘The Feather News.’
“With us in The Feather News, we actually plan to keep our home in Saskatchewan and help the film business here,” Cuthand said.
The Feather, which recently won the APTN/ImagineNative web series pitch competition, will air for a second season on APTN in June 2025.
As part of Cuthand’s residency, he plans to share his knowledge of writing, producing and directing a show for television.
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And while he only started at the U of S this week, he is already arranging meetings with students.
“It can be hard to want to put your story out there into the community for people to read and listen to,” he explained. “I just want to encourage students to not be too scared of that.”
Across Canada, Indigenous leaders are working to uplift not only youth artists, but the Indigenous community as a whole.
Recently, Deloitte Canada released their final report in its Voices of Indigenous Youth Leaders on Reconciliation series.
Within the final volume, insights from Indigenous youth identify four priority areas for action in advancing Indigenous sovereignty: Indigenous Peoples and Land, Self-Governance, Nationhood and Truth-telling and Learning.
When asked what they hope the future would look like if Indigenous sovereignty were to be fully realized and respected, the youth identified the following as key experiences:
- Indigenous Peoples live in a society where they feel comfortable in their identity, able to self-express and actualize their full potential,
- Indigenous nations are exercising effective governance and authority to meet community needs, resulting in their people healing and thriving,
- Sustainable Indigenous-led decision-making and land practices are in place and respected by governments and landowners in a cooperative, collaborative way, and
- Indigenous nations are interacting with governments on an equal nation-to-nation basis with influence on outcomes.
“Indigenous youth are calling for meaningful action in four key areas where their authentic identities are embraced, their cultural values are respected, and their communities’ sovereignty is upheld,” said Byron Jackson, the director of Nation Building Advisory Services and a member of the Piikani Nation.
“Sovereignty is being more defined by the youth leaders now as relationships with the land and really everything that is atonement and anything that has a life force.”
Jackson said it’s important for people to continue to share Indigenous stories and values of all kinds, including artists.
As for Cuthand, he hopes he can play a small role in promoting intercultural understanding and story sharing in Saskatchewan.