ENVS 2122: Report on the Ribbon Skirt Event and Indigenous Resistance

This report examines the "Ribbon Skirt and Trousers" event, a community art project led by indigenous girls, primarily Cree and Metis, aged 12-17. The event, held at Collective Dance, aims to raise awareness and honor indigenous girls who have died or gone missing due to violence. The report details the event's structure, including smudging ceremonies, sharing food, and the creation of ribbon skirts, which symbolize resistance and cultural reclamation. The analysis draws on the work of Pablo Helguera and highlights the use of textile art as a means of expression and community building. The report emphasizes the event's role in addressing issues of gender, democracy, and abuse against indigenous peoples, as well as its impact on the participants, the community, and the importance of the involvement of everyone to fight and end abuse. The event incorporates videos and discussions to share the girls' experiences and perspectives, providing insight into their challenges and resilience. The report concludes that the Ribbon Skirt event is an effective tool for raising awareness and promoting resistance against violence, emphasizing the importance of community participation and collective action.

Mirna Shahara
Lisa Myers
2020-03-10
ENVS 2122

Resistance Against Violence
The "Ribbon Skirt and Trousers," a party of indigenous girls aged between 12 and 17
years, where most of them Cree and Metis, was the art experience I attended at Collective Dance.
Throughout Saskatchewan, but across the world across schools and diverse groups the ribbon
skirt event has begun. • The ribbon skirt festival brings together participants to create
consciousness of and remember indigenous girls who died or skipped. The community leaders
and organizers of this case are Kari Dawn Wuttunee, Jennifer Altenberg, and Sarah Flicker. You
begin by setting out some snacks to share and eat together, then you smudge. "A smudge is the
ceremonial burning of holy plants or medicines to produce soothing smoke to aid prayers grow
and wash out harmful energies.
To us, the series was an act of spiritual reclamation. (page 69) to purify the soul and the
body and then clarify how the red ribbon skirt can be made and what every colour of their
community represents. They use textile approaches that involve textiles, ribbons, threads and
graphic display of images and videos. For starters, in the video they presented, the girls wanted
to convey their feelings while outdoors, and the video shows that just going to a center is
challenging for them, as they are treated differently. They try to give the idea to all girls who are
still amazing irrespective of how they feel. The collective has used other instruments, such as the
incense that was used to purify the body and cleanse the atmosphere that we will not have in our
daily lives. We have always made a great effort to make meals for us so that we can feel relaxed
and share food, which is a really important aspect, and once you share food, you become sort like
a family, which is how I felt there. The event will support all those worried with gender,

democracy, and the abuse against aboriginal people and indigenous peoples. The event will
benefit those who know for gender. The ribbons and the red fabric were simple to use so that
anyone could quickly wear a top. Within the present text, I'll suggest that the rope skirt art
festival for aboriginal people is a perfect opportunity to fight and end abuse.
This event can be described as a direct involvement in which the ribbon skirts
were created. Pablo Helguera's lecture of "Family" reveals how group art comes in so many
ways. Whenever we think of collective art, we need to reflect on what type of engagement
happens, as it would not be a group art without involvement. Participation is also quite
important: the group art is completed. Based on the reading of Helguera, we might conclude that
the case on the ribbon skirt had its meaning.
The writers said that "the traditional project in group art has its goal to affirm a sense of
self in the neighborhoods, reducing or suspending the form and substance of the commodity
objectively and always encouraging optimistic qualities of the collective" feel nice" "(Helguera
10). Since we were both aware of and helped create a basic yet effective artwork, and then
collaborated with each other and rendered the artwork, the Ribbon Skirt that the artist created is a
sort of involvement that completed the artwork, the segment I wrote back to, which was related
to the inclusion in this group art display. It was so sweet to see the girls in our class make those
dresses, because we never see people battling for the freedom of women. The stitching of
ribbons by themselves reveals just how each of us acts to avoid the abuse against aboriginal
people and to fight it. This means that the event's purpose is being met.
A Group Art Project at Ribbon Skirt utilizes fiber to express its meaning, the fiber cycle
is very powerful and an ancient form of re-establishing history. Of starters, because in the
workshop one of the members 'mothers sewed about 10 skirts a day and are incredibly creative,

they tend to use their hands rather than conventional technology. This approach was included in
the judgment of the members as it applies to them and their indigenous cultures. The approach to
use the fabric to create the skirt demonstrates that any participant works in designing an art piece
depicting the missing and murdered aboriginal people. The usage of a textile art technique binds
the indigenous community and encourages a participant to participate throughout their
community.
The stitching cycle reveals how tiny fiber pieces are put together to build one solid rock
that can be interpreted as putting the indigenous people together to establish a powerful, anti-
violent culture. "There is therefore a great deal of effort in making the skis, which makes the
participant conscious of its worthy importance, in the making of the ribbon skirts which taught
the girl's sewing skills and a deeper understanding of the work involved in creative work"
(pg70). Textile art practices utilized by aboriginal people are a very powerful means of
increasing consciousness, and everyone involved in the festival recognizes that the ribbon skirt is
the emblem of indigenous women who have been abducted and murdered. The party also hangs
the rugs in public, providing a feeling of visibility for those that go by. "We picked our ribbon
skirts with the red colour to commemorate the missing and killings of indigenous women and
girls around the globe. The red is strong and catches others 'interest. Having these rocks is a way
for them and their communities to pay homage. "Ocean tells us that" MMIW's purple, and one
day our Aboriginal people, who have lost and murdered, can maybe find their way home. This
consciousness remembers so many aboriginal people are gone, others are dead and abuse will
cease, against all and anyone who sees the dresses.

Indigenous people honor their history, heritage and traditions, they have undergone many
challenges in order to hold their community intact. The Ribbon Skirt stands for its history, its
woman dress, its strength and its resistance. The skirt addresses the political problems which ties
up the missing and murdered indigenous people, while it also has a great impact on the
participant as a symbol of identity and culture. Any participant helps to build a jacket, a sense of
belonging and a sense of society. "I sense my native family, my affection and my aunties, as I
wear ribbon dresses. This is an emblem of my position in politics as an Anishinaabekwe and a
sign of my heritage. The participants should know that the piece is about history, the role of
indigenous people and the politics, and I feel more important while wearing dresses, as they
realize that I am not alone, and that there is a full group and centuries of ancestors still with me,
"said Flanagan from the Leech Lake News.
"The option of a red ribbon skirt as an art piece in which the contestant needs to work is
also a good one for educating them indigenous cultures, which therefore allows them to get
closer to society as the individual starts to make the skirt understand that they belong to a
particular community that poses a major concern. Ribbon jacket is an identification form. 'Now
the Indigenous women of both races, not just in celebrations but in their ordinary existence, have
consciously liberated dresses from ribbons.
As the author clarified, "the skirt of the rivets reflects tons of stuff" (ph71), which made
us see the importance of making the girls make their own "(ph71).The individual then puts a very
large burden in helping create the belt skirt, since we both all realize what the belt skirt is and
what it means, so what should we do? This allows the individual to raise knowledge and prevent
abuse by offering this obligation.

In transmitting the message a significant role was performed in the art event performance,
the leaders of the indigenous community communicated quite well, and I believe several issues
were obvious. In reality, I didn't know anything about aboriginal people, as an outsider, until I
went to university, I never knew about them. The sight of the indigenous girls seeking to express
their faith, their values and their aspirations with us prompted me to see how important this is.
Their encounter provides participants with an outline of parental contributions for their babies,
the amount of aboriginal people who died and were absent, and their personal accounts of
relatives who died by abuse. Coming from a personal perspective, I realize that experiences
you've witnessed are daunting to write about and you never realize whether you feel whether the
public knows you or truly cares to you, however the indigenous girls are brave enough to speak
about and avoid abuse.
They revealed that they were nervous at the beginning of their sessions and that they used
sticky notes to articulate themselves and placed them throughout the house. The sticky notes
clarified such as the motivational factors, the drawbacks, their shortcomings and their strengths.
The indigenous girls said that they have never had phones or iPads, but that they have certain
tools to try to catch footage, to they did a fine job of describing their daily lives with those apps.
Through their videos they explained how they cope with the challenges they encounter, the
challenges did not weaken them, but rendered them more strong. We have clarified how they are
doing jingle walk, a kind of prayer for the sick and a kind of silent walk. Therefore they were
very successful and we all loved them so we could know more about the aboriginal people, for
example, their way of life that was completely unlike in Canada, their customs and traditions,

and their passion for their land. Their research was very successful. In fact, they struggle with the
abuse, intimidation and bigotry in their everyday lives.
In conclusion, the ribbon skirt community art event is a very effective way for showing
how the indigenous girls are treated and how many of them are suffering due to the violence, a
lot of them died and are gone missing. It is very hard for these girls’ families and relative
specially because the indigenous girls honor their families and relatives and as they said they
have very good relationship with everyone in the community. If one is missing or dead the whole
community suffers. Therefore, the ribbon skirt event makes everyone who participate aware of
this tragedy and it makes them fight to resist it which is why participation is very important,
working together is the most powerful way to fight. Each tool that these indigenous girls used is
like a powerful weapon to resist the violence. Therefore, the ribbon skirt event is a great way to
resist the violence and spread awareness.

Bibliography:
Helguera, Pablo. Education for Socially Engaged Art: A Materials and Techniques Handbook.
Jorge Pinto Books, 2011.

https://study.com/academy/lesson/what-is-textile-art.html
https://www.leechlakenews.com/2019/09/30/the-ribbon-skirt-part-1/