‘I wish you could see it’: Kitchener student dedicates ribbon skirt to girl who died at residential school

Amber Naseem never realized the lasting impact making an Indigenous ribbon skirt in her fashion design class at her high school in Kitchener would have on her until she completed the project.

Naseem attended Huron Heights Secondary School last year. The skirt was the final product and a creative writing assignment in her 11/12 grade fashion design class. Her teacher, Connie Collins, provided the students with orange ribbons with names written on them.

Naseem’s ribbon was named for Emily Redbreast, who attended St. John’s Indian Residential School in Chapleau, Ont. She died at the school on April 23, 1923.

“After I made my skirt, I wanted to dedicate and name my skirt in her honor and name it for her. So I just named it Emily Redbreast,” Naseem said.

Naseem used a pink fabric with colorful circles on it to make her ribbon skirt. The ribbons have different colors and each color has a different meaning.

The students were asked to write reflections on the making of the skirts and Naseem says she wrote a poem about Robin and the skirt.

“Do you like the color? Do you like how the ribbons line up? I wish you could see it,” the poem begins.

“Understand that this skirt, stitched with shaking hands, was the one taken from you. Every stitch was a realization, every measurement was a prescription and every torn seam was a guideline. It was a journey that led me to you, to your story .”

Skirts part of exhibition

Naseem and 19 other students spent a month working on their skirts under the guidance of their teacher Connie Collins and Mohawk artist Joyce Jonathan Crone, from Six Nations of the Grand River.

The skirts are currently on display as part of the Sacred Strength Ribbon Skirt Exhibit at the Huntsville Festival of the Arts in Huntsville, Ont. The exhibition will move to the Canadian College in North Bay in October.

Crone is a retired teacher with the Waterloo Catholic District School Board as well as the founder and president of Hope Arises Project, an indigenous nonprofit organization based in Huntsville. She organized the exhibition and this is the second year it has taken place.

Crone says the ribbon skirt is cultural clothing, traditionally made and worn by indigenous women and girls.

The ribbon skirts “exemplify the sacredness of Native women,” Crone said.

“Traditionally, as First Nations women, we have played very important roles in our communities. We were leaders in our communities,” Crone told CBC News.

“We as clan mothers were the ones who selected the heads and so we were also water bearers, knowledge keepers, elders, life givers,” she said.

“Our role has obviously changed over time. And so ribbon skirts represent our connection to our identity, our connection to Mother Earth and the land. And it’s really a demonstration of the strength, dignity and respect that we have. If I wear my ribbon skirt, it’s my armor.”

‘It grew exponentially’

Joyce and Collins are friends, so Joyce approached her with the idea of ​​having students make the ribbon skirts.

Collins says the project really grew into something that took on a life of its own.

“It grew exponentially into something … that I couldn’t have written into a lesson plan,” Collins said.

“That’s what you love as a teacher,” she added. “When that moment happens in the classroom, you have that aha moment where the student leaves. That’s what this is about. And that’s exactly what would happen with these skirts.”

Collins says a student approached her after the projects were completed to say they didn’t understand what it meant to be part of a reconciliation. But as she made the skirts and thought about it, the student told her they began to understand the process.

Crone says Naseem’s skirt and poem inspired her nonprofit organization, “Hope Arises,” to create an educational story for students in grades seven through 12.

The illustrated chapter book called The Emily Redbreast Story: Remember Us will include a companion guide for teachers, available across Canada in early 2025.

Naseem, now a business student at Wilfrid Laurier University in Waterloo, says writing the poem and later reciting it in class made her realize this was more than just a class assignment.

“Over time it’s grown a little bit,” she said. “I just feel like it means so much more to me.”

The original orange ribbon that Naseem received at the start of the project with the name Robin on it is still on her school bag.