GUELPH – Some Indigenous community members from Guelph and Wellington County will celebrate International Women’s Day with a ribbon skirt workshop.
The event is organized by the Southwest Ontario Aboriginal Health Access Centre (SOAHAC) and will take place at Guelph-Wellington Women in Crisis on March 6.
“For Indigenous women, a ribbon skirt is part of identity, culture and tradition, used for ceremony,” said Kellie Grace, traditional healing liaison at SOAHAC.
“Ribbon skirts, to many Indigenous community members, represent strength, resilience, empowerment and connection to Mother Earth.”
Juanita Paul O’Neill, who will facilitate the workshop, said “ribbon skirts touching the ground lets Mother Earth know we are there.”
Paul O’Neill made this ribbon skirt in honour of children who attended residential schools. Photo from Nukumi Creations Facebook.
Paul O’Neill, a “very proud member of Qalipu First Nation,” is the owner of Nukumi Creations, a small business selling ribbon skirts, bead work and paintings.
“I also do classes for anyone who is wanting to learn,” she said, because teaching others is part of her own healing.
Nukumi means grandmother in Mi’kmaq and Paul O’Neill is a grandmother of five.
During the workshop she will walk participants through every step of the process to make a ribbon skirt.
Materials and supplies, including fabric, ribbons and sewing machines, will be provided free of charge.
Ribbon skirts can be personalized with particular “colours, clans or causes,” Grace noted, like “Orange Shirt Day or missing and murdered Indigenous people.”
Paul O’Neill said “with so much negativity on the go about the Indigenous and even other groups, it is important just to get the word out that we are here and we are not going anywhere.”
Grace encourages people with Indigenous heritage to attend “community events, workshops, and socials to learn and connect to the culture, as our community is open and welcoming.”
She said events like the ribbon skirt workshop are important because “many people have been disconnected from the Indigenous culture and community due to impacts of colonization, assimilation and racism.”
She said bringing First Nation, Métis, and Inuit people together to learn new skills, socialize and share Indigenous knowledge empowers individuals and is a valuable way to cultivate emotional, mental, spiritual, and physical healing.
“Connection to culture and traditions within community” is important for people from all cultural identities, Grace noted.
Speaking from her own experience as an Indigenous woman, she said “our Indigenous community members are social, oral people and connection to culture and tradition provides a sense of belonging and identity.”
The workshop had space and supplies for 10 participants from the Guelph-Wellington Indigenous community to each make their own ribbon skirt to take home. It is free to attend and reached capacity within 24 hours of SOAHAC opening registration for the workshop.
Grace said “we see the communities want and need to have this type of workshop” so SOAHAC will organize another in the near future.
