Jan. 4, 2023, marks Canada's first National Ribbon Skirt Day. Manitoba Sen. Mary Jane McCallum's bill to recognize the day every Jan. 4 passed in Parliament late last year. Young women wearing ribbon skirts arrive for National Day for Truth and Reconciliation ceremonies in Calgary on Sept. 30, 2022. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jeff McIntosh
OTTAWA – Today marks Canada’s first National Ribbon Skirt Day.
Manitoba Sen. Mary Jane McCallum’s bill to recognize the day every Jan. 4 passed in Parliament late last year.
It was inspired by Isabella Kulak, a member of the Cote First Nation in Saskatchewan who wore a ribbon skirt to her rural Saskatchewan school in December 2020, when she was 10 years old.
She wore the colourful garment, donned by Indigenous women at cultural events, as part of a formal day – but her family said at the time that a staff member told her the outfit wasn’t considered formal enough.
The school division apologized, but her story sparked an online movement of Indigenous women sharing photos of themselves wearing ribbon skirts as an expression of pride in their identity.
Kulak and her family say that today, they want people to wear something that shows they are proud of who they are, whether or not that is a ribbon skirt.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Jan. 4, 2023.
