We are grateful to the following artists for their creative contributions
towards the 2025 Sâkêwêwak Storytellers Festival.
Hillary Ryder (1995–2023) (White Bear First Nation)
Some stars burn with such intensity that their light lingers long after they’re gone. Hillary Ryder was one of them. A brilliant force, an artist who painted not just with color, but with memory, with transformation, with the kind of knowing that runs deeper than words. Her canvases shimmered with gold leaf and earth tones, bodies of water stretched into infinity, and her own reflection appeared again and again, each portrait capturing the shifting landscapes of a life in motion. She painted herself as she was, as she had been, as she was becoming—always reaching, always evolving.
Hillary was born in Regina, Saskatchewan, and was a proud member of White Bear First Nation. She was Assiniboine, Sioux, Saulteaux and Cree, carrying generations of story and strength within her.
A self-taught artist, she first picked up a brush in 2013 at the tender age of 17 and never put it down. Her work was raw and radiant, exhibited at Sâkêwêwak Artists’ Collective, Tatanka Boutique and beyond. In 2014, she expanded into fashion design, stitching her visions into fabric, beading stories into form. That same year, she was awarded Sask Fashion Week’s first Indigenous Designer Bursary. No medium could contain her—she moved between them all with ease, with devotion, with fire.
And as she changed, so did her art. New textures, new symbols, new whispers of things just beyond the veil. But what never changed was the way she painted presence, the way she captured the pulse of being alive.
Hillary Ryder was incandescent. Her absence is immeasurable, but so is the love she left behind, the light she gifted this world. She is not gone. She is here, woven into the gold, into the water, into every brushstroke she ever laid down.
Adham Shaikh (Northern Himalayan ancestry, based on Sinixt territory)
For over three decades, Adham Shaikh has traveled the world, collecting the echoes of ceremony, weaving them into sound. His Emmy and Juno-nominated compositions pulse with the frequencies of earth and water, of traditions kept alive in vibration. From the sacred songs of the Shipibo and Cree to international festival stages, his music is both ancient and futuristic, a bridge between worlds.
Amanda Leader (Carry the Kettle First Nation)
Amanda Leader, is an Indigenous artist and student at the First Nations University of Canada, majoring in Indigenous art with a minor in psychology. Her artistic journey is deeply connected to her education, where she explores the intersections of art, culture and mental health. She became involved with CFNU Radio while serving as a council member for the FNUniv Students’ Association, providing campus updates and has remained an active voice ever since. The safe space within the Indigenous Communication Arts (INCA) and Indigenous Fine Arts (IFA) departments has been life-changing for her, and she encourages other students to engage in these supportive and creative communities.
Coulee (Red River Métis, Peepeekisis Cree Nation)
Coulee’s work is a weaving of stories that exist between the realms of the heard and the felt. A storyteller and sound weaver, they create immersive sonic worlds that serve as both healing spaces and conduits for the future. Their award-winning podcast series Something Else explores Indigenous futurisms and the power of sound as ceremony. Their practice, Liminal Story Weaving, uses sound and memory to build living stories that transcend traditional narrative forms.
Desmond Williams (Naka’Pamux First Nation & St. Vincent & the Grenadines)
Desmond Williams moves through worlds felt more than seen. A community healer, TRE practitioner, sound designer, and comedian, his work is rooted in the intelligence of the body, the medicine of vibration, and the unspoken languages of care. Whether through music, laughter, or deep listening, he creates spaces where the nervous system can soften, where presence can unfold, where sound can become a bridge back to ourselves and each other.
Tuner of Frequencies | Architect of Resonance | Weaver of the Unheard
Some hold space. Desmond listens to it. In the quiet margins of sound and silence, he attunes, redirects, and amplifies what needs to be felt. Like the wind through a lodge, like a ripple in still water, his presence shapes without force, reminding us that listening is not passive—it is an active, radical practice of connection.
Gary Edwards / DJ Sasquatch (Saulteaux First Nation)
Gary Edwards, also known as DJ Sasquatch, has spent decades crafting immersive soundscapes across the globe. His work is a fusion of underground electronic, Indigenous rhythms, and sonic textures designed to move the body and spirit. His birthday is just around the corner, making this set extra special—his first time performing with long-time friend Adham Shaikh.
Geanna Dunbar (Plains Cree and Métis)
Geanna Dunbar is an Indigenous tattoo practitioner from Treaty 4 Territory, Saskatchewan. Her work is deeply rooted in her ancestral ties to both the Plains Cree and Métis peoples, drawing inspiration from her family’s rich history. She traces her Métis heritage to Mitchel Klyne of Jasper House and his wife, Suzanne LaFrance, figures from the fur trade era whose legacy informs her connection to the land and her artistic practice.
As an Indigenous tattoo practitioner, Geanna blends cultural knowledge with artistic skill, creating tattoos that serve as expressions of identity, healing, and connection to ancestry. Working in Treaty 4 Territory, she carries forward traditional storytelling through her designs, ensuring that the legacy of her people endures in both body and spirit.
HIDDEN (Lakota/Anishinaabe, Pasqua First Nation)
HIDDEN is a portal, a project, a perspective. Filtering pop culture, colonial histories and digital landscapes through an Indigenous lens, their work moves fluidly between sound, visuals and performance. Each creation is an act of refusal and reinvention—a challenge to static notions of what Indigenous art should be.
jams (Portuguese, Sḵwx̱wú7mesh)
jams is an artist and mother who roots her work in storytelling, collaboration and trust. She is a mentor and mentee across many disciplines, but most notably is learning from her five-year-old on how to be a rad human.
Jori Anne Cachene (Anishinaabe, Yellow Quill First Nation)
Jori Anne Cachene’s work spans film, music, writing and performance—but at the core of her practice is healing. A certified hypnotherapist and counselor, she integrates therapeutic modalities with artistic expression, creating work that guides others toward self-discovery and transformation.
A survivor and a guide, Jori channels her matriarchal lineage through art that invites us to return to our roots, to the land, and to the stories embedded within our bones. Her creative process is both a reclamation and a beacon for those on their own journey back to self, offering a path toward deeper connection, resilience and healing.
Lindell Haywehe (Carry the Kettle First Nation)
Lindell Haywahe is a residential school survivor, artist, mother and mentor based in Treaty 4 Territory. With a background in journalism, social media management and broadcasting, she now serves as the Program Director for CFNU Radio, where she mentors students in podcasting and media production. A graduate of the First Nations University of Canada with a BA in English and an INCA Certificate, Lindell previously worked as a newspaper editor and community facilitator before finding her passion in radio.
Mahihkan (Anishinaabe/Lakota, Muskowekwan First Nation)
Mahihkan moves through sound the way a painter moves through color—layering, blending, shaping frequencies into stories. A DJ and sound artist since 2002, his journey began with borrowed equipment and a hunger to create. Over the years, Mahihkan has become a sonic storyteller, curating beats that pulse with the heartbeat of Indigenous communities. His sets have energized Buffalo Days Parades, Mosaic, youth conferences, and cultural gatherings, always carrying the echoes of home.
Melanie Monique Rose (Métis Nation—Saskatchewan)
Melanie Monique Rose listens to the land and its plant kin, hearing the wisdom left behind like breadcrumbs from her ancestors. As a visual artist and storyteller, she works with textiles and natural pigments, reviving old knowledge and braiding it into the future. Each stitch, each thread, is an act of remembering, of reaching back while moving forward.
Tenille K. Campbell (Dene and Métis, English River First Nation)
Tenille K. Campbell’s work pulses with desire, joy and unapologetically Indigenous themes. A poet, storyteller and PhD candidate in Indigenous literature, she crafts narratives that celebrate intimacy, sovereignty and pleasure. Her books, Nedí Nezu and #IndianLovePoems, explore sensual Indigenous storytelling. Tenille is also the artist behind Sweetmoon Photography and a co-creator of tea&bannock, an online space for community and culture.