Eight Paintings by Lois Dalby

In 1963, in its last decade in operation, School Aids and Text Book Publishing developed a set of Language Arts Wall Charts for use in northern Saskatchewan schools. These original paintings by Lois Dalby, an artist and educator who has lived in the La Ronge area of Northern Saskatchewan since 1955, formed the basis for a set of wall posters and accompanying teachers' resources. The posters depict a way of life in the north of our province that was fast disappearing. A 1966 article from the Saskatchewan Teachers' Federation Bulletin congratulated the School Aids company on this publishing milestone, noting that "for the first time in the history of the province, special instructional materials have been published for use with pupils of Indian Ancestry." The focus for these Language Arts resources was still on using English in the classroom; by the early 1970s, the Saskatchewan Indian Cultural College (now the Cultural Centre) was publishing bilingual language and cultural education resources in three Cree dialects, as well as Dene, Lakota, Nakota, and Dakota.