Winnipeg Ribbon Skirt Day event promises to celebrate Indigenous pride, love and 'loud auntie laughter'
First Nations girls, women, gender-diverse and two-spirit people were encouraged to wear their traditional regalia for the event, which started at Polo Park mall at noon.
"We're going to be showing up there in beautiful skirts. We're going to be showing up there with lots of love, kindness, loud auntie laughter and really just gathering as a community," said Hilda Anderson-Pyrz, a Cree mother, grandmother, auntie and advocate who is also the master of ceremonies for the event.
National Ribbon Skirt Day was created in honour of Isabella Kulak, a member of the Cote First Nation in Saskatchewan. In 2020, the then Grade 5 student was shamed for wearing a handmade ribbon skirt to school, when a staff member said it wasn't dressy enough for the school's "formal day."
The school district later apologized to the family and to the Cote First Nation for the remark.
Kulak's story sparked a movement of solidarity to deepen people's cultural understanding of ribbon skirts — which represent strength and identity within First Nations communities — and inspired the enactment of a federal bill passed in December 2022 to recognize Jan. 4 as National Ribbon Skirt across Canada.
Ribbon skirts are traditionally worn for ceremonial practices, but they can also be worn as everyday wear to show Indigenous pride.
"It represents many different things to many different Indigenous women, girls, two-spirit and gender-diverse people who wear it," Anderson-Pyrz told CBC Radio's Up To Speed on Friday.
"Many feel the strength of the ribbon skirt when we're walking in it and we're walking in nature, and the medicines are touching the bottom of our skirts and filling us and our spirits with healing, with love, with powerful medicine."
Ribbon skirts also represent a shield of protection, resilience, honour and humility, she said. Wearing the skirts is a way to reclaim Indigenous culture and the connection between the land and natural resources, countering the continuing impacts of colonization, said Anderson-Pyrz.
She hopes people will learn to treat each other with respect, love and kindness on National Ribbon Skirt Day, while recognizing Canada's systemic historical wrongs and finding a path forward.
The day is a reminder of the importance of protecting cultural expression and ensuring First Nations values and teachings are celebrated and understood for generations to come, Assembly of First Nations National Chief Cindy Woodhouse Nepinak said in a press release on Saturday.
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