Orange You Ready? Season 6
Learn, share, and participate in (re)conciliation!
Orange You Ready? is an opportunity to:
- Be on a team of 3-10 people from the university community
- Participate in a variety of challenges between October 2026 and April 2027
- Get out of your comfort zone in a welcoming and community-based learning environment
- Focus on emotional, intellectual, physical, and spiritual wellbeing
- Share team leadership and responsibilities
- Compete against the City of Saskatoon
- And most importantly, move forward on the path towards (re)conciliation
Each challenge can involve a few hours of individual and group work to complete, requires active participation, and will be coordinated and evaluated through written, image, and video submissions.
Save-the-dates:
- 3-4 pm Friday, October 23, 2026 in WPT 125: Kick-off meeting
- 1:30-3:30 pm Friday, November 6, 2026: Indigenous language class
- 2-5 pm Thursday, December 3, 2026: Cooking challenge and community potluck
- 2-5 pm Thursday March 11, 2027: Amazing Race
- Late January: Amazing Race preparation sessions
- April: Wrap-up event
And YES! You can sign up at anytime, it doesn't matter if you missed the kick-off event or even some of the challenges.
Scroll down to check out these challenges in past seasons!
Sign up
Please join the Canvas program through the link below!
You can sign yourself up as an individual and add yourself to an open team in Canvas, or contact us at oyr@usask.ca and we can help you do that. It's a great way to make new friends!
If you've already gathered a group to be on the same team as you, you can add yourselves to the same team on Canvas, or email us at oyr@usask.ca with their names and NSIDs and we can do that for you.
If you have friends and/or family off-campus who would like to participate with you, they are most welcome! Just email us at oyr@usask.ca to let us know so we can add their name to a team with you. They won't be able to join the Canvas program without and NSID but you can share the program information with them.
What is OYR?
Interested in OYR? but not sure what it's about? Here are some highlights from past seasons to give an idea.
Highlights from Season 5 (2025-26)
Cultural Cooking Challenge
Teams learnt about Indigenous cultural foods, researched recipes, and prepared dishes with a focus on locally-sourced ingredients. Participants then competed in a reality cooking show and we all enjoyed tasting the dishes at a community potluck.
Indigenous Language Class
Teams attended a Plains Cree class with instructor Candace Longjohn-Constant. We learnt many words and phrases including how to introduce ourselves, count to ten, and tell time. We also learnt how syllabics are used to spell Plains Cree words.
Amazing Race
Teams designed and built snowshoes and then participants ran around an Amazing Race course competing in four challenges: fire starting, hide scraping, speaking Cree, and snare setting. Afterwards, we shared our successes and challenges together.
What participants have said
"I have loved that Orange You Ready was shaped around participatory activities. The open, honest, challenging facilitation inspired deep learning for me. I think that inter-unit opportunities to build community have a huge impact on developing a strong foundation at the university. Having Indigenization at the centre of it demonstrates it is a priority here." - OYR participant, June 2026
"Being put into a group where I didn't know some of my teammates, so we got a chance to build new relationships & grow & understand our role as Treaty people & to share & learn from on another! I am so thankful for the opportunity for community and relationship building. It also helped me build community as a new staff" - OYR participant, June 2026
Highlights from Season 4 (2024-25)
Language Learning: nēhiyawēwin
Teams each made a video showing each other as we practice saying the phrases. Here's the phrases we learned!Phrase 1: Hello, how can I help you?
Tansi. Ka-kee-we-che-ayten chee?
Phrase 2: Do you need assistance?
Kgin-to-way-tehn chi ka-ka-way-che-aytahn?
Phrase 3: Please wait for a moment; I’ll be right with you.
Cheskwa be-ho nee-ka-pay-too-tahn kah-bee-way-chey-tahn
Phrase 4: It's good meet you.
Ah-mee-wah-sin en-ahk-ska-tway-ahk
Phrase 5: You’re always welcome here.
Pee-kway-spee tawaw oo-tah.
Phrase 6: Please take a seat and make yourself comfortable.
Ahow. Aye-ah-pi eh-ko-ta mee-wah-sin kye-ah-peen
Phrase 7: Have a great day!
Meh-to-ni me-oo kee-si-kahn-sik
Phrase 8: That’s wonderful to learn. Thank you.
Ahh tah-pway mee-wah-sin eh-kwa gum-scaht-to-me kin-in-ah-skoom-tin
Phrase 9: It’s okay, we will figure this out together.
Moy-nahn-toe kahn-ee-soo-ko-maht-ah-no
Phrase 10: You’re doing great, keep going.
Ah kwe-skee-too-team ah-gah-may-moo
Highlights from Season 3 (2023-24)
- Teams participate in Nitêh Iskotew Program ᓂᑌᐦ ᐃᐢᑯᑌᐤ (Heart Fire) Program
- Beading and Storytelling with Honey Constant-Inglis
