Sea of colour at Winnipeg Ribbon Skirt Day round dance, celebrates Indigenous culture and pride
National Ribbon Skirt Day was created in honour of Sask. student shamed for wearing skirt to school in 2020
A Saturday event in Winnipeg for the third annual National Ribbon Skirt Day was a chance for dozens to celebrate Indigenous pride, along with "love, kindness [and] loud auntie laughter," according to one organizer.
First Nations girls, women, gender-diverse and two-spirit people wore the traditional regalia for the event, which started at Polo Park mall at noon.
"This is our medicine, this is our shield of protection, honouring us, who we are," said Hilda Anderson-Pyrz, a Cree advocate who was also the master of ceremonies for the event.
Dozens of participants held hands together in a round dance while a drummer played and sang. The colourful and silky skirts followed in every step, creating a sea of colour.
"It's beautiful and it's nice to see something like this … I never got anything like this growing up," Rickita Cockerill said at the event.
WATCH| Dozens celebrate 3rd Ribbon Skirt Day in Winnipeg:
It is a source of pride for the Lynn Lake woman to be at the event with her children and see all the people particiapting. She said Ribbon Skirt Day is leading the next generation of First Nation people into learning about their culture at younger age than she did.
"I feel powerful, I feel wonderful," said Emily Spence, who was wearing a purple ribbon skirt at the round dance Saturday. "Getting everybody into knowing our culture and stuff like that … it's about time."
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.
Anderson-Pyrz, who also spoke to CBC Radio's Up to Speed on Friday, said the national event is an opportunity to not only show the beautiful skirts but also to gather as a community and "[show] up there with lots of love, kindness, loud auntie laughter."
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 said.
"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.
Families Minister Nahanni Fontaine echoed those sentiments at the event.
"It's really important for Indigenous women to gather in our ribbon skirts to take up space, to be seen, to reclaim our culture and our heritage," she said. "We're still here and we're thriving and we're in every space."
LISTEN| The importance of having National Ribbon Skirt Day:
With files from Up to Speed and Gavin Axelrod