Coming together to share in ribbon skirt-making
By Rick Garrick
THUNDER BAY — Netmizaaggamig Nishnaabeg’s Crystal Pirie and Marlene Sabourin delivered the first of their ribbon skirt and ribbon shirt workshops on Nov. 8 at Lakehead University’s Gakina Nindinawemaaganag lounge.
“We were very fortunate that the university provided kits for the skirt-making,” Pirie says. “One of the hardest parts in doing it for us is matching the ribbons to the material. For today’s particular class, our students are not familiar with the sewing machine, so they’re going to learn basic sewing machine skills as well. And they’re creating their own designs on the skirt with the ribbons, so they’ve learned how to measure it and how to calculate the different measurements, from waist and then length.”
Pirie says she initially had a personal interest in learning how to make ribbon skirts, so she bought a basic sewing machine to get started.
“That grew as I learned more about the culture and meaning of certain things and more artwork particular to [Anishinabek] people,” Pirie says. “My interest continues to grow, so today, I personally sew a lot of different types of regalia and different types of sewing items like quilts, shirts, pouches, bundles.”
Sabourin says she has sewn her entire life, including making clothes and Halloween costumes for her children.
“Even way back then, I did regalia for my daughters just for the pow wow back home, so we would do Fancy Shawl dresses,” Sabourin says. “So, I’ve done that for both my daughters growing up, and then I’m just kind of getting back into it.”
Sabourin says she and Pirie decided to make some regalia to sell at their community’s pow wow, which has since evolved into making Jingle dresses, Fancy Shawls, and skirts.
“I enjoy it; it’s taking the time, matching the fabric, all that fun stuff,” Sabourin says. “We’ve been doing that pretty much for about eight years and Yolanda (Twance, coordinator of the Indigenous Student Services Centre at Lakehead University) approached me and asked if I’d be interested in doing a ribbon skirt workshop. I’ve always wanted to share my knowledge and teach — so I jumped at the opportunity.”
Whitefish River’s Summer Lavallee, a fourth-year Honours Bachelor of Social Work student at Lakehead University, says the workshop went really well.
“It’s very well organized and I appreciate having the expertise here from some of the older women,” Lavallee says, noting that they had sets of material and ribbons to choose from. “They had a really good selection of different colours, different patterns on the fabrics, and I chose one that just had a lot of colours in it that I really liked, like bright colours.”
Lavallee says it was nice to work together with the other students on the ribbon skirts.
“It’s nice to see some familiar faces and it’s also nice to meet new people,” Lavallee says. “I’m really thankful that I get to do things like this at school because there are a lot of barriers to accessing your culture, specifically with ceremonial regalia or clothing items. They are fairly expensive if you were to buy them, and it’s also a hobby that’s quite expensive as well to buy all the fabric and the ribbons and to buy a sewing machine.”
Twance, a Netmizaaggamig Nishnaabeg citizen, says they offer a lot of different cultural supports for Indigenous students on campus.
“Last week, we had a birch bark basket-making workshop, this week we’re doing the ribbon skirt workshops and then next week we’re doing the men’s ribbon shirt workshops,” Twance says. “So, it’s nice to be able to offer students a variety of cultural workshops that they enjoy doing. They’re excited to make their skirts and of course they’re going to wear them with pride — they’re very popular these days, the ribbon skirts, so everybody wants one.”
The ribbon shirt workshop is scheduled on Nov. 15 and 18 at the Gakina Nindinawemaaganag lounge.