The first reading in La Ronge was attended by many tri-community children. (Derek Cornet/larongeNOW Staff)

By Derek Cornet

free reading

Northern author tour spreading message about believing in oneself

Jul 22, 2024 | 1:44 PM

A Saskatchewan author is touring the North this week and is spreading a message about trusting the internal voice that wants the best for us.

Lynne Harley’s first stop was in La Ronge on Monday at the Alex Robertson Public Library, as well as at the Lac La Ronge Indian Band’s Senator Myles Venne School. She’s offering a free one-hour program, which includes a reading of her children’s book What If You Could? followed by a discussion and an interactive art activity.

Harley wrote the book a couple of years ago and she calls herself a passionate advocate for youth mental health.

“I really wrote it in celebration and memory of my brother’s life, who struggled with mental health,” she explained.

“To me, it’s not just a book, it’s a powerful message about learning to trust the voice within us that’s loving and really wants the best for us, and to not believe the voice that wants us to be afraid and to be fearful and to postpone our dreams or tell us all of the reasons we can’t.”

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Harley, who lived in La Ronge from 1990 to 1997 and was employed to deliver empowerment programs for women, said she knows suicide has been a big issue in Northern Saskatchewan. She noted her book supports kids in having a vision and dream for their future.

“It’s about a caterpillar who wanted more for its life and he ended up a butterfly and I think that’s the power of the story,” she added.

“A butterfly is a symbol for any culture about transformation. I always tell people when I talk to them, if you came from another planet and I showed you a caterpillar and said it will become a butterfly, you might go, ‘how is that going to happen?’ Often people do that with their dreams. They have a big dream and they think how is that going to happen? I’d really like to say it is in the nature of a butterfly to evolve and that nature is within us, but it really takes believing in ourselves and our dreams.”

More information about this week’s northern author tour. (Pahkisimon Nuye?áh Library System/Facebook)

As part of the interactive art activity with the program, children create a butterfly they are able to take home.

Throughout the week, Harley will be making stops in Stanley Mission and Pinehouse Lake on Tuesday, La Loche and Buffalo Narrows on Wednesday, Ile-a-la Crosse and Beauval on Thursday, and Montreal Lake on Friday.

The author tour is being organized by the Pahkisimon Nuye?áh Library System in Air Ronge. It is their first author tour since the start of the COVID pandemic in 2020.

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derek.cornet@pattisonmedia.com