Instructors

Jesse Selkirk is a permaculturist, educator, and community organizer from Saskatoon, SK. He received his Permaculture Design Certificate from Verge Permaculture in 2019 and has spent the last half decade experimenting with Permaculture principles and techniques in his home, garden, and life.

On his home site, Jesse has implemented a bio-diverse, no-till garden with custom three season tomato trellises, a rain harvesting swale path system which passively distributes rainwater collected from the roof, and a compact urban food forest. He administered a Humanure Handbook style composting toilet for a two person household for two years, and has an active urban foraging practice. 

As a community organizer, Jesse began blogging with his wife Cassandra and their shared WasteNotYXE project. Over the period from 2015 to 2019 Jesse and Cassandra produced near zero household garbage, and shared their Zero Waste journey through blog posts which were widely viewed and shared. The couple hosted multiple Zero Waste workshops, gave numerous interviews, and would go on to co-create and moderate the WasteNotYXE Facebook group with a number of other prominent Saskatoon Zero Waste practitioners. Though Jesse and Cassandra have stepped back from their involvement with the Zero Waste movement, the Facebook group continues, and now has over 3000 members.

Most recently in 2020, Jesse co-founded the Saskatoon non-profit Re:Generation Land Commons, with the intention of bringing together a group of like minded Permaculturists, conservationists, foragers, rewilders, and regenerative farmers to pool resources and purchase Land together. The long term intention for the project is to establish an ecologically regenerative community on this shared Land, and to educate and inspire the public around all aspects of regenerative living. After two years of foundation laying (establishing Articles of Incorporation, Corporate Bylaws, building a website, etc.), 2022 saw the group move into their Second Phase,  reaching out to the public and producing educational events. 

Jesse has also been grateful to be presented with a variety of teaching opportunities. These include delivering educational workshops on Zero Waste living for the Nature City Festival, soil nurturance and Permaculture at the Ness Creek Music Festival, and converting unused green space to potato production with his online Potato Sovereignty Webinar. 

Maggie Blue-Waters is an Iskwesis (Cree Woman) of the William Charles band at Montreal Lake, SK. She is a Chapan (Great Grandmother), a Kokom (Grandmother), a Mother, and a fellow student. A survivor of the 60’s Scoop, Maggie’s blood memory of her childhood with her family on the Land is a source of deep inspiration, reverence, and persistence in the journey of her Life. Guided and fueled by Vision, today Maggie acts as a teacher, a healer, and a tender of the Land. Having spent much of her life in Colonial society, Maggie has come to see that all of us – both Indigenous peoples and Settler peoples – suffer the wounds of colonization, displacement, and deception. She has dedicated her life to Reconciliation, and brings her teachings in the spirit of reconnection with the Earth. 

Steven Wiig received his Permaculture Design Certificate at the Panya Project in Thailand in 2011, then continued to work and learn on various Permaculture projects around S.E. Asia until 2014. That year he made the move to Kenya where he completed a Permaculture Consulting training and worked with others to found the Oltumo Maasai Project. This was a demonstration and education site which worked with the Indigenous Maasai people to find solutions for their transition from nomadic to settled living. While spending winters in Kenya, Steve also managed his Saskatoon based regenerative landscaping company, Holistic Landscape and Design.

Traveling in the Global South gave Steven a perspective on how we can live in simpler, more holistic ways, and shined a greater light on the dysfunctional patterns of our own culture.

In 2018 Steve returned to Saskatoon full time, and helped to establish the food forest at the Muskeg Lake Cree Nation. He continues to work with Muskeg to the present day as their Food Security and Climate Change Adaptation Manager. Some of Steven’s many responsibilities with Muskeg Lake include administering a 3000 square foot education/production greenhouse and a 2.5 acre food forest, establishing a tree nursery and demonstration shelterbelts, as well as various collaborations with other First Nations and outside institutions, from the U of S to AgriFood Canada, to the Redberry Lake Biosphere.

Steven is grateful for all of the opportunities he has had to learn from and work with Indigenous peoples. He believes that the essence of Permaculture is inspired by and founded upon Indigenous peoples’ relationship with the Land. His hope is for his work to continue to build networks between Permaculture and Indigenous peoples in this shared journey to re-enliven our connection with the Earth.

 “Across the great span of geological time, the moment we are living through now on Earth is characterized by the human-created impacts that pervade the planet’s biosphere. We are experiencing the apogee of the Anthropocene – living & breathing & suffering the detrimental effects of our own making, along with the rest of the Earth. And yet, here we are, gathering & learning, trying to cultivate the changes that could see us through. There is desperate hope. There is beautiful uncertainty. There is innate possibility.” 
– Kjelti Katherine

Kjelti Anderson moves with a profound sense of belonging to this world  – with intrinsic affinity to the serene song of the meadowlark or the harrowed howl of the wolf, she too seeks to resound. Her voice echoes in the living litany ringing through the forest as an ode to the unfolding of all creation within, through, & around us. She cultivates a passionate relationship with Mother Earth as a herbalist, permaculture homesteader, artist, & mama. She creatively resists the resignation that humanity’s fate is ultimately one of dominance & depletion by tending to the new earth becoming through the critical inner & outward action needed at this time in human history.