Tag: life & style

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Lending of traditional garment for special events helps overcome cost barrier

Lending of traditional garment for special events helps overcome cost barrier



When Kyrra Kematch burned part of her ribbon skirt at a sweat ceremony, she needed a quick solution. The 17-year-old had registered for the Matriarch Summit, a gathering of Indigenous women, girls, two-spirit and gender-diverse individuals, but couldn’t afford to purchase a new skirt.

“I didn’t want to wear it to the Matriarch Summit because it’s a really professional event,” Kematch said. “I found this lady on Facebook who was renting out her ribbon skirts to anyone who needed them, as long as you gave them back.”


JESSICA LEE / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS</p><p>Gosselin started making the skirts in March and now has a dozen to lend out.</p>

JESSICA LEE / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS

Gosselin started making the skirts in March and now has a dozen to lend out.

That lady was Sasha Gosselin, who began lending her collection of handmade ribbon skirts to strangers in the last few months.

Kematch was pleasantly surprised by Gosselin’s kindness and generosity.

“She just hands them out and lets anyone wear them, anytime,” Kematch said. “That’s absolutely wonderful. I love what she’s doing.”


JESSICA LEE / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS</p><p>Retailing for prices between $100 and $400, the cost of ribbon skirts can be a significant barrier for some.</p>

JESSICA LEE / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS

Retailing for prices between $100 and $400, the cost of ribbon skirts can be a significant barrier for some.

Gosselin, who is originally from Treaty 4, only recently began creating ribbon skirts. Originally, she picked up the sewing machine to reconnect with her culture from her dad’s side of the family, but it soon became a catalyst to help others connect, too.

“After wearing my first ribbon skirt and feeling that sense of connection to my culture and the pride of wearing it, I wanted to be able to share that,” Gosselin said. “I started making my own skirts and I decided that I would take a chance and put them out there completely free of charge so that other people would get to experience what I got to.”

At first, Gosselin began informally lending the skirts by spreading the word on different Facebook groups. Recently, she launched a Facebook page called kisêwâtisiwin (“kindness” in Cree) to display her collection.

Retailing between $100-400, the cost of ribbon skirts can be a significant barrier for some, Gosselin said. Amid the grad and powwow season, the ribbon skirt demand has been high for artisans such as April Tawipisim, who owns Winnipeg-based Turtle Woman Indigenous Wear.

“On average, we sell about 10 skirts per week, and there’s been a real high demand for ribbon skirts with grad,” Tawipisim said.

Ribbon skirts are worn during ceremonies to evoke pride and a spiritual connection to the earth. One of Gosselin’s favourite aspects of the process is attaching ribbon drops to the sides of the skirts, which she sees as the “whispering of them going up to Creator, having them long so they’re close to the ground and they touch the earth.

“Our ancestral women wore dresses from cotton skirts and then added ribbons and made it nice and fancy,” Tawipisim said. “As time went by and things evolved, the shorter skirts became more fashionable.”

In just a few months, Gosselin’s ribbon skirts have been worn to a host of special events, from high school graduations to sundance ceremonies. One woman even travelled an eight-hour drive from Norway House Cree Nation to pick up a custom-designed skirt for her graduation.

“You might wear them to any kind of thing where you want that powerful feeling behind you, whether that’s going to a grad ceremony (or) going to something where you’re receiving some type of honour,” Gosselin said. “Just being present and showing that we’re still here.”

Kematch is just one of many Indigenous women who have borrowed Gosselin’s skirts, but she remains touched by her act of kindness.

“The ribbon skirt is really important to me because it’s something I hold near and dear to my heart, and it makes me feel more empowered,” Kematch said. “Out of the kindness of her heart, and for being such a trusting woman, she has let people borrow her skirts and bring them back for events. I just think that’s absolutely beautiful.”

As grad season comes to a close, Gosselin is eager to share her wardrobe with anyone heading to ceremonies. Emulating its Cree namesake for kindness, Gosselin hopes kisêwâtisiwin will help others feel the pride of wearing the threads of one’s culture, regardless of financial situation.

cierra.bettens@freepress.mb.ca

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Jane Goodall hosts two live events in Canada

Jane Goodall speaks during an interview in Calgary, Alta., Wednesday, June 22, 2022. Goodall says she's sharing a message of hope and a cry to action as she returns to the stage for live events. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jeff McIntosh




Jane Goodall speaks during an interview in Calgary, Alta., Wednesday, June 22, 2022. Goodall says she's sharing a message of hope and a cry to action as she returns to the stage for live events. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jeff McIntosh

Jane Goodall speaks during an interview in Calgary, Alta., Wednesday, June 22, 2022. Goodall says she’s sharing a message of hope and a cry to action as she returns to the stage for live events. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jeff McIntosh

CALGARY – Jane Goodall says she’s sharing a message of hope and a cry to action as she returns to the stage for live events.

The scientist, who’s best known for her work with wild chimpanzees in Africa, was in Calgary on Wednesday and was scheduled to give another talk in Victoria on Friday night.

“It’s my first trip to Canada in three years, because of the pandemic, and it’s my third trip anywhere,” Goodall said in an interview Wednesday before her Calgary event.

Like many, she spent the past two-and-a-half years of the pandemic working from home and delivering her message online.

“It was a grind,” she said, “because we created virtual Jane and virtual Jane could do Zooms and Zoom interviews and attend conferences every day.”

Goodall, 88, said she keeps telling her story both online and in person to try to inspire others to find their own way to deal with threats such as climate change and the loss of biodiversity.

“If we don’t have hope, then we become apathetic and do nothing. So, if we all become apathetic and do nothing, we’re doomed,” she said.

“We are at a critical juncture and it’s desperately important that people get together and actually take action.”

Climate change is altering the water cycle and has led to floods, droughts and wildfires. It has also driven biodiversity loss, with research suggesting that a million plant and animal species are at risk of extinction around the world.

Both have happened, Goodall said, because of a lack of respect for the natural world.

“We need to remember that we are part of the natural world and, in fact, we depend on it,” she said. “We depend on it for clean air, water, food, everything.”

Goodall said that means having a healthy ecosystem.

“I see an ecosystem as a beautiful tapestry and, within that tapestry, each species of plant and animal has a role to play,” she said. “As they become extinct from that ecosystem, it’s like pulling threads from the tapestry until it hangs in tatters and then the ecosystem will collapse.”

She said people need to learn to live with species such as wolves, which are an important part of the ecosystem, and people also need to do their part to help restore nature.

“I think we’ve somehow got to reach into people’s hearts,” she said.

“You’ve got to find stories to help them realize that this is a crisis, but I actually can do something.”

Some, she said, may feel as though they are just one person who picks up plastic trash each day and isn’t making much of a difference. “But, when you think that there are millions of people picking up bits of trash, you realize it is making a difference. Collectively, a big difference.”

Goodall said Roots and Shoots, a youth leadership program that’s part of the Jane Goodall Institute, helps young people figure out how they can help.

“If our young people lose hope, we’ve had it,” she said. “It’s not true that nothing can be done.

“We’ve got this window of time — I have no idea how big that window is, I know it’s still closing — and so Roots and Shoots is about giving young people hope by empowering them to take action, to choose themselves projects to make the world a better place.”

She said the program has members from kindergarten to university, and adult groups are also forming.

“This is my greatest hope for the future,” said Goodall.

“That, and our brain that is beginning to turn to finding ways to heal the harm we’ve inflicted and the resilience of nature — that places we have destroyed can once again support nature and animals on the brink of extinction have been rescued.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published on June 24, 2022.