Light Fires - Education

Light Fires supports two educational streams: credit and non-credit classes and workshops. Within the for-credit stream is NS (Native Studies) 360 (Indigenous Prison Writing), a for-credit class that teaches campus students about the history of Indigenous incarceration and prison literature in Canada. We are also building capacity to be able to support incarcerated people who wish to audit university classes on campus, as well as formerly incarcerated people who wish to transition to university post-release.

INSPIRED MINDS

In addition to for-credit classes that provide pathways to post-secondary education, Light Fires also prioritizes non-credit arts-based education through the Inspired Minds: All Nations Creative Arts Program. This volunteer-based program offers classes and workshops on a variety of creative art forms, including creative writing, dance, and traditional arts. Light Fires’s framework for arts-based education ensures that:

Classes are participant-led: incarcerated learners have autonomy and self-determination to identify their learning goals, and to co-create the learning environment that is responsive to their needs
Learning opportunities are open and accessible to all types of learners with various literacies (cultural, visual, oral, kinesthetic, literary, etc.)
Indigenous knowledges are centered and uplifted, and multiple learning/educational pathways are embraced
Art is understood as an important tool to understand Indigenous histories, Indigenous lived realities, Indigenous resistance, and Indigenous identities

Founded in 2011 in partnership with the Indigenous Cultural Coordinator at the Saskatoon Correctional Centre, Inspired Minds: All Nations Creative Writing is the original stream of Inspired Minds programming, focused on creative writing, storytelling, and the creation of positive, relational spaces of collective learning. Inspired Minds classes typically run for 8 weeks and culminate in a final project based on learner interests. Such projects have included everything from poetry zines to a manifesto on the right to education in jail and a release guide for incarcerated men. Learners who complete the program are awarded a Certificate of Completion from the Faculty of Native Studies at the U of A or the Department of Indigenous Studies at the U of S.

Learners in Inspired Minds are also encouraged to submit their individual writing and/or artwork to Creative Escape, an annual publication of the Indigenous Cultural Coordinator at the Saskatoon Correctional Centre, produced in collaboration with Inspired Minds and distributed to libraries and universities across Canada.

Below is an overview of the different programming streams offered as part of Inspired Minds.

miyo-pimatisiwin Traditional Arts Workshops

The first Inspired Minds workshops were offered at Buffalo Sage Wellness House in 2023 and included moccasin and ribbon skirt workshop tutorials for incarcerated women. These workshops were initiated and led by one of the Light Fires research assistants (who also decided on the name, miyo pimatisiwin, which means “the good life” in nehiyawewin), who was accompanied by an Elder and Knowledge Keeper who incorporated traditional teachings into the workshops.

All participants in the miyo pimatisiwin workshops are invited to a self-care day, where they have access to a professional photographer, make-up artist, and hair stylist (all Indigenous), who provide short tutorials on make-up and hair. Everyone has an opportunity to have their photo taken in their ribbon skirt and/or moccasins and are then provided with a photo pack to keep and gift to friends and family.

In 2025, Light Fires is expanding its Inspired Minds: miyo pimatisiwin workshop offerings, with four scheduled ribbon skirt making workshops, a full-day self-care day workshop and photoshoot and a series of writing workshops led by Faculty of Native Studies faculty and graduate students.

Creative Writing 8-Week Program

An 8-week non-credit creative writing program for men and women who are incarcerated in Saskatchewan and Alberta. Class topics are decided according to what participants want to learn. This program provides participants the opportunity to learn about and practice different modes of storytelling, including oral tradition, poetry, short stories, autobiography, songs, and visual art. The program also aims to provide an important outlet for participants to express themselves and their experiences. The Inspired Minds: Creative Writing program runs regularly at the Saskatoon Correctional Centre and a program has been re-established at the Pine Grove Correctional Centre in Saskatchewan as of April 2025. In September 2025, Light Fires will begin an Inspired Minds: Creative Writing program at the Fort Saskatchewan Correctional Centre.

Bedtime Stories

Bedtime stories is another important initiative of Inspired Minds, based in part on the award-winning program Storybook Dads from the United Kingdom. Participants are recorded reading a children’s book, and the recording is then sent to their child along with a pair of pajamas, a stuffed animal, and a backpack. Inspired Minds has added the unique element of storybook writing workshops, where participants have the option to write and illustrate their own children’s book, designed specifically for their child or relative. The program offers an avenue through which incarcerated parents can connect with their children, contributing to strong familial relations and strong Indigenous communities. Currently, Bedtime Stories is offered by the Indigenous Cultural Coordinator at the Saskatoon Correctional Centre, with the hope that with expanded capacity in the Alberta context, we will be able to offer the program in both provinces.

Movement and Dance Class with Nimihtotân: Let's Dance!

In winter 2024, Light Fires partnered with Nimihtotân: Let's Dance!, an Indigenous-owned dance company to support the development of the first ever Inspired Minds: Dance and Movement class. This 8 week class offered incarcerated Indigenous people the opportunity to learn a broad range of dance practices (both contemporary and traditional) alongside oral-stories/teachings about Indigenous dance.

WALLS TO BRIDGES (W2B)

The Walls to Bridges (W2B) program creates educational partnerships between postsecondary institutions and correctional systems across the country. This program brings together “outside” (campus-based) students with “inside” (incarcerated) students to study as equal peers in semester-long college/university level courses. Instructors teach their regular class off-campus within the jail or prison setting. Classes are modified to ensure they are relevant to the experiences of incarcerated students and often include information and discussion about social justice issues.

In 2017, the Faculty of Native Studies established the Indigenous Women and Youth Resilience Project. The project aligned with the University of Alberta’s commitment to reconciliation, specifically addressing the crisis of missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls, and developing a shared understanding of “resilience” within this context. In partnership with U of A Libraries, Community Service-Learning, and Women’s and Gender Studies, the team developed a proposal to support incarcerated women’s access to education through the funding of Walls to Bridges classes. From 2018-2020, they created a unique version of the W2B model, centering the importance of Elders and Indigenous knowledge in the classroom, and prioritizing the enrollment of Indigenous learners. They offered three W2B classes at the Edmonton Institution for Women, as well as facilitating the process for women from Buffalo Sage Wellness House to attend on-campus classes. Joining the U of A W2B initiative in 2021, Light Fires continues to collaborate with the above units to grow the program across campus.

In 2024, two Walls to Bridges classes were offered by the University of Alberta and with the support of the Light Fires Project. In the Winter 2024 semester NS 362 was taught at the Edmonton Institution for Women. In the Fall 2025 semester Light Fires supported an on-campus version of the Walls to Bridges class. In the Winter 2025 semester NS 450/550 was taught inside the Edmonton Institution for Women, and a Fall 2025 Community Service-Learning course is planned.

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