Stitching up new relationships

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 15/10/2019 (2265 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Floral print and brightly coloured fabric sewn into skirts bordered with strips of ribbon have become a symbol of friendship and respect between Indigenous and non-Indigenous women.

Portage la Prairie resident Angela Roulette, who is an Anishinaabe teacher  and founder of the Women of Mother Earth Network, said, when she wrote a letter launching her Ribbon Skirt Project about a year ago, she never dreamt that it would take the shape it has since then.

“It’s opened my eyes so much as a woman, mother, grandmother and great-grandmother,” she said. “These skirts were meant to wake us up.”

Her original intent was to collect 500 ribbon skirts that would be given out at an Indigenous elders’ gathering this fall. Neither of these goals has materialized, but instead the project has taken her and others involved in another direction — one of learning and sharing.

“Our sacred duty — an act of reconciliation and healing,” are the words on a poster for the Ribbon Skirt Project pop-up exhibition, which was held at Prairie Fusion Arts & Entertainment’s gallery in Portage from Aug. 15 to Sept. 7, where some of the skirts were displayed along with information on the project.

Roulette said she’s gathered about 250 skirts so far and they come from all over. A woman who lives in northwestern Ontario mailed in a skirt that she hand-stitched, and a Steinbach seamstress donated 11 skirts. Some have come from Portage Collegiate Institute students, those who participated in an August workshop held at Portage’s Fort la Reine Museum, while many were sewn by women who meet once every two weeks in donated space within Portage’s Holy Trinity United Church (15 Tupper St. S).

Roulette has photos showing the colourful skirts draped over benches surrounding the women while they work on the skirts. She said she gradually realized that positive energy was being created within that environment as the women sat and chatted as they sewed.

“We were getting a healing. We put them (the skirts) out every time,” she said. “These are healing tools.”

She said a ribbon skirt was one of the items found in an Indigenous woman’s traditional bundle. The ribbons represent the umbilical cord that connects the woman to Mother Earth.
While she realizes that most of the skirts she’s collected don’t conform to traditional guidelines for colours and fabric, but that doesn’t matter to her.

“Each skirt is a gift — there’s no wrong colour.”

Roulette admits she wasn’t familiar with using a sewing machine when she started the Ribbon Skirt Project, but she has since learned from others.

She’s been given sewing machines and financial support to buy fabric and ribbons. While she hasn’t received support from any level of government, she said what’s happened in terms of the project’s evolution has been more heartwarming.

“It’s based on faith,” she said, adding support has come in on a grassroots level.

To date, she’s given skirts to a women’s shelter in Brandon and is looking for other agencies serving Indigenous women that are interested in having ribbon skirts available for clients. In the meantime, she plans to keep holding the bimonthly sewing sessions and collecting more skirts.

“There’s a lot of work still to be done. I realize that we’re never going to be finished with this.”