Exploring CQ Nipawin: Music, Stories, & Cultural Intelligence

On October 9 from 6–8 PM, the Rise Up Community Advisory Foundation invites you upstairs at the Nipawin Legion for an unforgettable evening: Exploring CQ – Music, Stories, & Cultural Intelligence.

This is a FREE family friendly event where everyone is welcome to "just show up" and enjoy!

This FREE Culture Days event blends live music, storytelling, and dialogue to spark cultural intelligence (CQ) — the ability to build bridges across cultures. Led by global artist and cultural bridge-builder Wilbur Sargunaraj, alongside local voices and traditions, the concert is both entertaining and deeply meaningful.

What to Expect

This isn’t a sit-back-and-watch concert. Exploring CQ is edutainment — education wrapped in music and joy. You will:

• Sing along (including a multilingual “thank you”) and join in simple interactive songs.

• Take part in gentle reflection exercises, writing on flip-charts at the start and end to empower community.

• Experience a musical treaty acknowledgement (“Side by Side”) that grounds our time together in respect and relationship.

• Browse a pop-up CQ exhibition of six stand-up banners that you can read at your own pace before and after the concert.

• Share in stories that are engaging for youth, but also dive deeper for adults, seniors, and Elders who are ready for honest conversations.

• Kids, unleash your inner artist with Crafty Jan, creating intuitive abstract masterpieces using watercolor and ink!

• Celebrate our volunteers, with thanks to SaskEnergy — our official Volunteer Champions — for helping lift up the many hands that make this event possible.

This FREE family-friendly evening is open to youth, Elders, seniors, home school families, newcomers, and long-time residents from all cultural backgrounds and walks of life. Whether you come to listen, learn, or participate, you’ll leave with new insights, new songs, and stronger connections.

Why It Matters

At Rise Up, our mission is to foster kindness, reconciliation, and resilience in community life. Events like the Exploring CQ Concert create a safe and welcoming space to celebrate diversity and strengthen bonds across cultures and generations. They remind us that belonging grows when people can speak from the heart — without fear of judgment — and discover together what it means to be culturally intelligent in a diverse world.

Want to take the learning further? You can purchase Wilbur’s book Exploring CQ: Building Relationships Using Cultural Intelligence online through Amazon.

Thank You to Our Partners

Exploring CQ Nipawin is proudly presented as part of Culture Days, with support from SaskCulture and the Community Initiatives Fund (CIFSask). Special thanks to SaskEnergy, our official Champion of Volunteers, for helping us celebrate the Nipawin Handiworks many hands that make this event possible.

We are also grateful to Wilbur Sargunaraj for bringing this experience to our community, and to all our local partners who continue to support Rise Up events that bring people together through kindness, culture, and connection.

Join us October 9, 6–8 PM at the Nipawin Legion (upstairs).

Admission is free, and everyone is welcome.