One Book One Province

About One Book One Province

The Saskatchewan Library Association introduced One Book One Province Saskatchewan in 2017 to give the province’s residents an opportunity to engage with a shared experience around a book. Our aim is to create an experience that supports literacy, creates a reading culture, raises the profile of libraries and literacy organizations, and builds community engagement through a shared experience. Each year, the SLA selects a title by a Saskatchewan Author that builds awareness and understanding in topics such as diversity, reconciliation, or an aspect of our provincial history.

The One Book One Province (OBOP) program starts with the Launch event at the Government House in Regina in late March, followed by a series of six in-person author reading events, taking place in different locations across Saskatchewan, mainly libraries, during the month of April. For an updated list of event locations and dates, please refer to the section below.

2026 Book Selection

The 2027 One Book One Province title is WÎHTAMAWIK / Tell Them: On a Life of Inspiration by Louise Bernice Halfe – Sky Dancer. The program will see libraries, book clubs, and individuals across Saskatchewan join together in April 2027 to read this book and share discussions about the story.

About the Author

Louise Bernice Halfe – Sky Dancer is an acclaimed nēhiýaw (Plains Cree) poet and writer from the Saddle Lake First Nation in Alberta. She has been the recipient of multiple awards and appointments for her work, including the Saskatchewan Centennial Medal, Saskatchewan Provincial Poet Laureate, Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal, Canadian Parliamentary Poet Laureate, King Charles III Coronation Medal, and Member of the Order of Canada.

2027 Events:

March 2027 | OBOP Launch: Government House, Regina

About the Book and Where to Find It

Cree poet and kêhtê-aya Louise Bernice Halfe – Sky Dancer chronicles her childhood in a cabin on reserve, through the Indian Residential School system, and into her reclamation of her nêhiyaw language, culture, and spirituality.

My parents taught us the art of observation. I learned to hunt, skin, and butcher game through non-verbal methods. I also watched my grandparents work on the land and live their spirituality. I helped gather, dry, and grind their medicines. I inhaled the medicines’ power and ingested it. When I left for residential school all this fell asleep.

In never-before-collected essays and new poems, poet and kêhtê-aya (Elder) Louise Bernice Halfe – Sky Dancer tells the story of how she woke up from the trauma of separation and found the source of her inspiration: her culture and the land. In Cree, inspiration is described as a sudden insight. It can come from visits from spirit, from the charged reciprocal experience of being taught by Elders and teaching the next generation, from speaking Cree, which allows the poet to “somersault into memory,” and from the practice of observing and being in relationship with the land as it “constantly gives birth to itself.” wîhtamawik / Tell Them is a stunning love song to nêhiyaw ways of knowing—ways which Halfe has spent her life working to reclaim from the violence of colonization, in order to celebrate their survival and share their enduring teachings with future generations.

[University of Regina Press]

Find the book in your region:

• Chinook Regional Library
• John M. Cuelenaere Public Library
• Lakeland Library Region
• Pahkisimon Nuyeʔáh Library System
• Palliser Regional Library
• Parkland Regional Library
• Regina Public Library 
• Saskatoon Public Library
• Southeast Regional Library
• Wapiti Regional Library
• Wheatland Regional Library
  
  

For more information about One Book One Province, contact SLA Program Coordinator Milena Džordeski by emailing mdzordeski@saskla.ca.