Traditional Knowledge Keepers Workshop: Colour Stories from the Land

Join artist and visual storyteller Melanie Monique Rose for an introduction to make a one-of-a-kind wearable artwork. Together, learn about bundle dye and eco-printing techniques to design your own scarf.  Melanie will share her knowledge about native dye plants and natural dyeing. Learn more about Melanie's land based art practice while creating your own colour story from the land!

No experience necessary, open to ages (13+). Beginner to intermediate participants welcome. Materials will be provided, but feel free to bring from home any plants or flowers you want to include in your ‘colour story’ from your yard or even kitchen. Weather depending, we may walk outside to gather leaves, etc, so bring a bag or basket for foraging. Registration is $32 per person.   

SCHEDULE:

9:45am – 10:00am || Participant arrival
10:00am – 12:00pm || Workshop part I
12:00pm – 1:00pm || Lunch break (lunch is not included but there is a microwave, sink and fridge available for use)
1:00pm – 3:00pm || Workshop part II

Melanie Monique Rose is a Metis/Ukrainian visual artist from Regina, Saskatchewan Treaty 4 Territory, a citizen of the Metis Nation of Saskatchewan, and a long-time contributing member of Sâkêwêwak Artists’ Collective Inc. and board member. Rose’s work centres on kinship and relationships between the land, ourselves and each other. Through plants and flowers Rose invites transmissions of ancestral knowledge and teachings while also imagining and creating a de-colonial future through the lens of Metis worldviews.

She attended Kootenay School of the Arts with a major in the Fibre Arts in Nelson, B.C. Rose has exhibited her artwork in both group and solo exhibitions. Most recently, Melanie has her largest showing of work to date in her solo show, Li moond di fleur at the Woodland Cultural Centre in Brantford Ontario. In the summer of 2023 Melanie’s natural dye practice took her to both Ottawa, at the National Gallery of Canada and Santa Fe, New Mexico’s SWAIA Fashion shows, where her work walked the runway. A recent career highlight was exhibiting in the group show, Storied Objects/Metis Art in Relation at the Remai Modern in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. A great honor was to receive the distinction of Excellence in Textiles from the Saskatchewan Craft Council in Dimension's 2013 touring show. In 2020, Melanie was named a CBC Future 40 for her work in arts and culture. In addition, she was one of seven artists awarded the Saskatchewan Foundation for the Arts Endowment Award to further artistic pursuits in 2021. In 2023 she was honored with the Queen Elizabeth II Platinum Jubilee Medal from His Honour the Honourable Russ Mirasty Lieutenant Governor of Saskatchewan for her work in Arts & Reconciliation. Most recently she was awarded the 2025 Indigenous Resurgence in Action category for the Regina YWCA Women of Distinction.

This workshop is brought to you by the Friends of the Royal Saskatchewan Traditional Knowledge Keepers Series, sponsored by Saskatchewan Teachers' Federation.

Events at the Royal Saskatchewan Museum may be photographed or recorded on video. By attending this event, you are giving permission to the Royal Saskatchewan Museum and the Friends of the Royal Saskatchewan Museum to use photographs or videos that may contain your likeness for promotional purposes. Photographs or videos may be shared in print material, on the website for the Royal Saskatchewan Museum, or on social media. Please identify yourself to our photographer or registration staff if you do not wish to be photographed.