Journey through southeast Sask. reveals thriving Filipino community, passion for heritage, mouth-watering food

CBC's virtual road trip series Land of Living Stories explores the hidden gems across Saskatchewan. Reporter Laura Sciarpelletti once again hit the road in search of inspiring stories of community, heritage and good food. 

Some of Saskatchewan's many municipalities can seem to fly by within 40 seconds of driving. But no matter how small a place is, there are always people who choose to live there because they love their community. 

Just two days in southeast Saskatchewan reveals a thriving community of immigrants, a yodeling painter, a chef who returned to his hometown with dreams of creating delicious high quality dishes, frost-painted trails and the legacy of a historian who dedicated his life to preserving historic photographs of his beloved region. 

Living Filipino in Moosomin

The year is 2009 and Leo Illustrismo has decided there is no future for him and his young family in Manila, the capital of the Philippines. 

"There were lots of competitions. It was hard to advance, and so I decided that I wanted to try and work abroad," said Illustrisimo in a recent interview.

"I was missing home, missing my wife, and there were times when I was questioning my decision. Did I make the right choice of moving here? But I thought it was a sacrifice that I was willing to make in order to have a better future."

Illustrisimo was hired by Maple Leaf to work in a hog barn not far from Moosomin, Sask., about 224 kilometres east of Regina. 

When Maple Leaf drove the new hires out to their work site, Illustrisimo realized he was in a place he'd never seen the likes of before.

"We drove for three hours and every minute that passed you see the towns getting smaller and smaller and smaller," Illustrisimo said, laughing.

"It was a huge difference from being in a city with 20 million people to a town with 3,000 people. It was a culture shock."

But Moosomin was very welcoming to Illustrismo, and he began to get involved in the community. Eventually his wife and child joined him. The Filipino population at that time was made up of just six people, he said. 

Fast forward to 2023 and the Filipino population has ballooned to about 300 people. That is about 10 per cent of Moosomin's population, according to the Moosomin Pinoy Community, which Illustrisimo co-founded nearly seven years ago. 

The organization gets involved with cultural events in the town — dancing and performing in traditional Filipino dress, and sharing traditional foods. 

"We're so noisy and we love partying and getting together. So in order for us to be involved more in the community activities and be acknowledged as a real group of people in town, we decided to establish the Filipino community here," said co-founder Jylenn Valdez, originally from the northern Philippines. 

"It was tough during the time because, of course, although we came from the the same country, we came from different places in in the Philippines. We have different principles and we have different beliefs."

Once they settled on their shared values and goals for the organization, Moosomin Pinoy Community flourished. 

Newcomers flocked to jobs in the hospitality sector and the local potash mine. 

"We help each other. Every time everybody starts off on a new job or a new venture, we always ask how they're doing, give advice on what to do with mortgages, how you buy your first home," said Illustrisimo.

Now, some Filipinos in Moosomin have their own businesses, including Illustrisimo. And more are arriving all the time. 

"The Filipino population is growing and growing. It's increasing. We feel important, we feel at home. We were able to introduce our own cultures and our own practices here. Having our group recognized, we can proudly say that this is our second home from the Philippines," said Valdez. 

Eli Barsi: small town, big voice

Eli Barsi was raised as a farm girl on the prairies of southeastern Saskatchewan, about an hour from Moosomin. 

A gifted musician with 17 albums to date, Barsi has spent three decades touring the world with music spanning the banjo, guitar, bluegrass tunes, country rock and, yes, even yodeling. 

"Somebody asked my husband a few years ago, 'That yodeling thing. That's a dying art, isn't it?' And he said, 'No, it just sounds that way,'" Barsi said, laughing. 

She said yodeling is special because it evokes feelings of nostalgia in all ages. 

Even after living abroad and earning acclaim for her work, she chose Moosomin to call home. When COVID-19 hit, Barsi's touring schedule freed up and she began painting in earnest.

"If I just sit down and paint what I want, I'm going to be painting the Prairies and my surroundings, because that's where my heart is."

Barsi recently opened an art gallery in Moosomin called Prairie Girl Gifts & Gallery where she sells her paintings.

She also still travels all over.

"No matter where I've lived and where where I travel with my shows, I feel it's important to wave the Saskatchewan flag everywhere I go and educate people, especially when you're south of the border. A lot of people have no clue."

Cork & Bone Bistro

Chef Jarrod Slugoski of Moosomin spent 16 years working at the famed Fairmont Château in Lake Louise. But when his son was born, he knew the tucked-away mountain life wouldn't cut it any more. 

"I thought, well, if I have the ability to bring something to the hometown that I wanted to raise my son in, then I think my decision is pretty easy," said Slugoski. 

He moved back to Moosomin and opened a restaurant specializing in gourmet comfort foods. Schnitzel, braised lamb shank, mussels, Malabar chicken pasta and other eclectic dishes adorn the menu. 

"We put our twist on things," he said. "It's very diverse and it kind of suits everyone's needs."

Cork and Bone Bistro opened in October 2019. COVID-19 came about three and a half months later, but Slugoski pivoted to weekend takeout in the following months, and word of mouth — a very powerful tool in small towns — kept the restaurant alive. 

"I realized that living on a mountaintop for 16 years made me miss the closeness of community, the kinship. It's a really great family oriented vibe in this town."

Moose Mountain Provincial Park

It's a mild winter morning in Moose Mountain Provincial Park, near Kenosee Lake, and the trail ahead is partly packed down already.

Birch Forest Trail winds around Pickerel Point for about two kilometres, and it's a Saskatchewan snowshoers dream. Instead of the vast flat prairie that lies outside Moose Mountain, the trail is thick with birch forest and frost-laden branches. 

Moose Mountain was designated a park in 1931 and features a variety of trails for hiking, biking, ATVing and snowmobiling. 

It's a perfect reminder that the temperature doesn't have to be in the pluses for Saskatchewan residents to experience the wonder of the province's parks.

The legacy of Adrian K. Paton of Arcola

Adrian K. Paton was in his 50s when he began collecting original historic photos taken in southeast Saskatchewan. 

Paton was born during the Depression and spent most of his life farming around Arcola, about 184 kilometres southeast of Regina.

His fervour for history led to the publication of his 2018 book An Honest, Genial and Kindly People. The book is filled with photographs of First Nations people from the turn of the century in southern Saskatchewan. 

"When he got started in something like this book, it consumed him. He just had tunnel vision for it. He loved it. Everything he could do, every spare moment he had went in to writing that book," said Brad Paton, the elder Paton's son.

The historian died in January 2021 at the age of 86. Later that year he received a posthumous Saskatchewan Heritage Award for his book. His daughter Valerie Guillemin accepted the award from Saskatchewan Lt.-Gov. Russell Mirasty on his behalf.

Guillemin said echoes of her father's passion for southeast Saskatchewan will live on through all the research he did. 

"He had a lot of photographs of Indigenous people, and he spent a lot of time working with the Indigenous people in the area and others that might be able to help identify some of the people in the photos," said Guillemin.

"He worked really hard to make those photos come to life through the stories that were associated with them and the people in them."

Connie Big Eagle, chief of Ocean Man First Nation, wrote the introduction to Paton's book. She first met him at a museum exhibition of his photograph collection in Arcola. 

"Immediately he was very warm and welcoming," Big Eagle said. "He was kind of giving me the tour and we were walking down this hallway and I focused on this one picture and he said, 'Oh, that's Old Salt.' And I said to my niece, 'That's my great grandfather!'"

The future chief said she would hear about Old Salt in stories when she was growing up, but she had never seen a photo of him.

"It was so amazing," she said. "That was the specific photograph that caught my eye."

Big Eagle said Paton was very aware of repatriation and appropriation. She said he was respectful when interviewing First Nations peoples about photos in his collection.

"He would be speaking about one person or one incident, and there would be two different versions of this story. But he didn't argue about which one was true. He would tell both the stories to be respectful to both parties," Big Eagle said.

Guillemin currently has Paton's entire collection of artifact replicas and original photographs, which the family hopes will be on display in a museum again one day.

"It went all over southeastern Saskatchewan from museum to museum, and a lot of people went and saw that. If it went to Vancouver or further, he would have been ecstatic about that," Brad Paton said of his father. 

Guillemin also plans on repatriating some of the photographs to people whose ancestors are in the collection. 

Paton leaves behind his farm and land just outside of Arcola. There lies a small mound he called Hawk Hill, where he piled up 10 feet of rocks. 

Over the years he viewed it as a symbol of his connection with the land and nature. Beside the rock pile is a plaque with the names of Paton's family members. Today his children see Hawk Hill as a part of their father's legacy.  

"What he would want you to remember would be to revere the earth and sky. To understand how the land is important. To understand how the inhabitants of the land are important and to tie that into your own life, because it grounds you," said Guillemin. 

"If you know the importance of the land and of nature and of those things, it'll help you through your life. It's helped me through mine, and that's because of the teachings of my dad."

Paton's beloved photographs will forever give people in the southeast a visual representation of that history and connection.