When Amber Naseem enrolled herself in her Grade 12 fashion class, she knew she’d be learning the history and cultural import of fashion from around the world. What she didn’t expect, was that one of her projects would go on to be an act of reconciliation.
“It didn’t hit me at first when I was doing the project. I didn’t understand the significance,” the now-19 and a student at Wilfrid Laurier University, said. “But it showed me what every individual can do and the extent [they] can reach to.”
The project Naseem is referring to is a red-and-pink ribbon skirt she created for her Waterloo County District School Board class’s Indigenous fashion module. That work, alongside that of 20 other students from her class, is now on display in Muskoka as part of the Hope Arises Project’s “Sacred Ribbon Skirt Art Exhibition.”
The exhibit opened May 31 and runs until June 23.
Held at Muskoka Arts & Crafts in Bracebridge, the exhibit — now in its third year — celebrates traditional Indigenous ribbon skirts for their artistic beauty while highlighting the cultural ties the clothing has to the history and impact of Indigenous women.
“We have 20 ribbon skirts made by 20 grade 11 and 12 students from Huron Heights Secondary School in Kitchener,” said Joyce Jonathan Crone, Hope Arises founder and exhibition organizer. “I came up with this idea of making an art collection of ribbon skirts. The idea is that it’s a vision of relationship, connection and a reflection of reconciliation.”
Crone said the exhibit is also an opportunity to talk about the ways in which Indigenous women and girls have faced, and still do face, inequality, violence and dehumanization in contemporary society.
“We were life givers, knowledge keepers, water bearers, clan mothers. We had a leadership role within the community,” Crone said. “What I want to focus on is the history of ribbon skirts and how that is our connection to identity and the sacredness and resilience of being an Indigenous woman.”
Crone and her colleagues at Hope Arises will be facilitating a ribbon skirt workshop on June 7.
Open to 40 participants, the workshop will feature demonstrations on how to create a ribbon skirt, the recitation of a poem written by Naseem and inspired by her experiences making and learning about ribbon skirts, and dialogue from Crone and others on the history of Indigenous women, their regalia and the issues affecting them today. It runs from 5 to 7 p.m.
Correction — June 6, 2024: This article has been edited from a previous version that misstated the name of the school board.
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