Sara Carrier-Burns (right) cuts ribbons for students at a ribbon skirt making course at the Northern Lights Casino on Jan. 4. (Susan McNeil/paNOW)

By Susan McNeil

National Ribbon Skirt Day

Sask. women say ribbon skirt represents strength and positivity

Jan 4, 2024 | 5:00 PM

Sara Carrier-Burns, a member of James Smith Cree Nation, has very personal reasons to wear a ribbon skirt so she dons one of the many she makes herself regularly and teaches others to make them as well.

Years ago, she was mourning the loss of her sister and found herself on the second day of the wake considering self-medicating with alcohol after years of sobriety.

“I was feeling very lost and overwhelmed and confused and I had intentions of going to self-medicate after the wake,” she said to paNOW on January 4, now known as National Ribbon Skirt Day.

Carrier-Burns had been sober for several years before her sister died and would wear the symbol of Indigenous women’s strength and empowerment on certain occasions like wakes or funerals.

So she was wearing one while waiting to bury her sister as a way to honour her memory and carry her through her grief but was on her way to have a drink when she noted what she was wearing.

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“I had noticed I was wearing that ribbon skirt and I was thinking I can’t be disrespectful and drink in that skirt. It reminded me of why I stayed sober and why I got sober and brought me back to my senses. I believe that is the power of the ribbon skirt.”

Ribbon skirts can be made from any pattern of fabric and are matched with whichever ribbon the maker chooses. (Susan McNeil/paNOW)

Dianne Stonestand is also from James Smith and makes the long skirts decorated with ribbons and has similar reasons for creating them and giving them away.

She started making them in 2010 for her brother’s wake and remembers having one with camouflage fabric.

She now makes them and gives them away, getting reward from watching others wear the garments and says hers are simpler, unlike the more elaborate garments sewn by Carrier-Burns.

“They’re nothing fancy, not like Sara Burns,” said Stonestand. “We do it just for the love of doing it.”

If she gives someone a skirt who then chooses to give her money, she will accept it but does not charge for the sewing or the fabric or other notions.

She often sews with her daughter Shania and then compares results with other family members who also sew.

“They’re all individual. When I make a ribbon skirt it’s meaningful because when you do ribbon skirts or ribbon shirts, you can’t do it in a negative way. It has to be in a positive way,” Stonestand explained.

She will sometimes buy fabric and wait up to a month until she feels it’s the right time to do it. She also smudges them. It all helps her have a positive outlook on life.

When Dianne Stonestand makes skirts, she gives them away. (submitted/Deanna Stonestand)

In the last 13 years, she estimates she has made about 100 skirts and in some cases, has sewn 10 in a day.

As a mother of five boys and one daughter, Stonestand has been making skirts with her daughter since she was 13.

Dianne Stonestand (right) sews ribbon skirts with her daughter Shania. (Submitted/Dianne Stonestand)

On Ribbon Skirt Day, Stonestand takes time to think about Isabella Kulak, a member of the Cote First Nation who wore a ribbon skirt for a formal event at her rural school in Kamsack.

Isabella was told that her skirt didn’t fit in with the formal day attire that day by a staff member, which upset her and then led to the now national movement to wear ribbon skirts on January 4.

In Prince Albert, the skirt-making event was held upstairs at the Northern Lights Casino, which wanted to do something to honour the day.

Despite the less-than-happy circumstance that started the day, Indigenous women – and some men too – are using it to show their strength.

“I teach them the practical stuff too but I also share my story of how it helped me and how it can help the people taking my class,” said Carrier-Burns.

She teaches classes to people across Saskatchewan wherever she is invited and said classes are always full.

In the two years since a Kamsack girl was told her skirt was not formal enough, people choosing to wear the handmade garments have jumped in numbers. (Susan McNeil/paNOW)

Earlier in the day, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau issued a statement on National Ribbon Skirt Day and acknowledged Isabelle Kulak’s story.

“Isabella’s story – and the stories of so many others – reminds us of the ongoing challenges Indigenous Peoples face, including racism and inequity, and of the work we need to continue doing, together, on the shared path of reconciliation,” he said. “Today, we see women, girls, and gender-diverse people wearing ribbon skirts both formally and informally – like when they cross the stage to receive their degrees or when they are passing on traditional knowledge to the next generations at home or in classrooms. Thanks to their resilience, that history has not been and will never be lost.

susan.mcneil@pattisonmedia.com