The Storyline Issue 3- Fall 2026

Issue 3- Fall 2026

A busy summer; a fulfilling fall

Since our last newsletter in April, we have been truly on the move. With four in-person workshops in Saskatoon, and one each in Tokyo, Tasmania, and Sydney, with workshops in New Zealand and Vancouver coming up. StoryCentre Canada has gone global!

Scroll down to read about:

An In-Person Workshop just announced! Vancouver, BC
Workshops with Indigenous-led projects in Saskatchewan,
An announcement for our upcoming Online Public Workshop,
A project in Tokyo with youth with low to no vision,
A Migrant Farmworkers project in Niagara, Ontario,
A project in Tasmania, Australia.

StoryCentre Canada Board News

It is with great enthusiasm that we welcome three new board members; Adam Masson, Deshawn Hibbert and Jessica Dargo Caplan. Get to know them on the Our Team page of our website. Between them they will bring new community connections and knowledge, rounding out our team of Directors nicely.

We also want to say thank you to our outgoing board members, Francisco Vidal and Robin Elliot, who contributed so much to our development as a non-profit during their terms as Directors. They will be much missed on the leadership team!

Vancouver In-Person Digital Storytelling Workshop!

Do you have a story to tell? Have you always wanted to create your own digital story? Do you want to learn first-hand why making a digital story is so powerful? Come join our in-person workshop!

Come to our workshop in Vancouver, November 28-30, 2026

Tuition: $600* REGISTER BY NOVEMBER 15TH!

This doesn’t happen every day! We’re so excited to be coming to Vancouver! Come make a story in person, with Rani Sanderson and our Vancouver facilitator, Heidi Taylor.

NO EXPERIENCE NECESSARY!

For more details, check our website.

Contact us to reserve your spot now!

*contact us if you are in need of a discount

Four workshops in Saskatoon, our honorary hometown

Still from “Kamâmakos Iskwew- Butterfly Woman” by Anna of Waterhen First Nation. In this photo is her grandmother as a little girl, representing three generations of her family.

Thanks to our great relationships with groundbreaking Métis and First Nations academic researchers, we were invited to Saskatchewan to support knowledge transfer on several important fronts.

Dr. Heather Foulds of the University of Saskatchewan is using Digital Stories to support research on the benefits of participating in Métis Dance, the Red River Jig, for Indigenous health and well-being. Participants included longtime jiggers and newcomers who joined dance group to find community and express their love of Métis culture.

We continued work with Dr. Caroline Tait on Indigenous experiences of organ donation and transplantation, who told stories about the reality of waiting for organs in Saskatchewan, where at least 50% of people waiting for organs are Métis and First Nations.

Dr. Robert Henry’s Innovation Academy (Saskatchewan NEIHR) uses Digital Storytelling and arts-based research methods to support Indigenous graduate students from around the world. Their stories allowed them to reflect on their experiences with mentorship and support as indigenous scholars.

We were honoured to work with Christine Fiddler, PhD Candidate History Department, University of Saskatchewan, and her wonderful group of teens from Waterhen First Nation, who shared their very personal stories of life on the reserve and their connection to elders. We hope one day to return this important work with younger people who have much to say, in ways that we all need to hear.

Click here to watch Anna’s story

“I am in awe with how quickly our stories came together. Only a few words were spoken but those couple of minutes captured the story I will share with our family” ~Michelle, participant in “Indigenous Experiences of Organ Donation and Transplantation.”

Registration open: On-Line Digital Storytelling Workshop- February 2027

WINTER 2027

Online Workshop

$650

$50 Discount if you register before November 30, 2026.

Join our workshop, running Tuesdays from 6-8pm eastern time, February 2- March 9, 2027. Each week we will cover part of the process, helping you to write, edit and create your own short digital story in video form.

This workshop is appropriate for:

researchers who may want to use DST as primary research collection or as a form of reporting in their projects,
students or instructors working in health, community work, the arts and other disciplines,
anyone with a story they are itching to tell.

No experience necessary!

Prefer face to face workshops? Let’s talk about a digital storytelling workshop where you are!

2026: StoryCentre Canada in Tokyo!

A new way of working:

Rani visited Japan to work with Saori Kusumoto, our StoryCentre Canada facilitator based in Tokyo. The project was with Hands On Tokyo, a volunteer-run non-profit that promotes bilingual volunteerism that benefits the community.

This was a unique digital storytelling workshop for young people with low to no vision. They worked one-on-one with facilitators who acted as their editor, ensuring their stories came out exactly as they wanted. The experience challenged us to think about how to use our other senses to describe how to illustrate the words of people who don’t see. The results were fantastic!

Thanks to Ayami Azemoto & Kaoru Kotaka of Hands on Tokyo for your help!

Watch “A Light in the Heart” by Momoko.

“During the actual production stage, the one-on-one format allowed me to communicate my vision clearly while creating the piece, which I really appreciated. Even the fine details of how the music came in were worked out by aligning both of our sensibilities, making it a very fulfilling time. I'm very grateful that it was crafted so carefully all the way to the end.” ~Momoko - Hands on Tokyo storyteller

Women Migrant Farmworkers: a summer project in Niagara

Still from “El papel que me toco“ (“The role I was given”) by Maricela Alejo Ruiz

Part of Inclusive Niagara; a project with Dr. Julie Ham of Brock University.

We travelled to Beamsville, Ontario, to a small but busy church where Father Peter and a committed group of volunteers run a hub, The Migrant Farmworkers Project, for temporary foreign workers. Farm workers plant, tend and harvest our food and flowers year round, through the ice and snow, rain storms, record heat and humidity. We worked with women, most from Mexico, who come for more than half the year, leaving their children and parents behind so that they can be their families’ breadwinners. Their stories tell of tenacity, trauma, love, grief and determination, as they are burdened on both sides to support their families but also to be mothers and daughters in spite of great distances.

These stories will support efforts by the Brock University Mobilizing Subjugated Knowledges for a Just and Inclusive Niagara project to increase empathy and awareness of Canadians who live in the Niagara region toward farmworkers.

Click here to see Maricelas story.

“I would love for the whole world to know my story and to be able to share it with the world so they can take the good from this story.” ~Maricela Alejo Ruiz, workshop participant

Care Beyond Cure - Stories of Grief, in Tasmania

We travelled to Ulverstone, Tasmania, Australia, a beautiful northern beach town, for a storytelling project in September. Care Beyond Cure is a charitable non-profit organization that provides social space for and supports people who have progressive, life-limiting illnesses, and their carers.

Stories told over the three-day workshop helped participants to process grief, love and loss. We hope to return soon to this amazing group (and to the Little Blue Penguins that we got to see nesting on the coast!)

Rebecca and Rani are pictured, above, with the penguin at Penguin, Tasmania!

Watch “My Soul Friend”, by Lyn

“Thank you so much for allowing me to sit at your table and get a small taste of your lives and stories. It became a feast. On the drive back to the West, I realised that I was so very well nourished by the experience.” ~ Lyn, Care Beyond Cure participant, Stories of grief project