Amber Naseem never realized the lasting impact making an Indigenous ribbon skirt in her fashion design class at her Kitchener high school 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 Grade 11/12 fashion design class. Her teacher, Connie Collins, provided the students with orange ribbons with names written on them.

Naseem’s ribbon had the name 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 honour of her and name it for her. So I just named it Emily Redbreast,” Naseem said.

Naseem used a pink fabric with colourful circles on it to create her ribbon skirt. The ribbons have different colours and each colour has a different meaning.

The students were asked to write reflections about creating the skirts and Naseem says she wrote a poem about Redbreast and the skirt.

“Do you like the colour? Do you like how the ribbons are aligned? I wish you could see it,” the poem begins.

“Understand that this skirt stitched with my hands trembling was the one taken away from you. Every stitch was a realization, every measurement was a regulation and every seam ripped was a guidance. It was a journey that led me to you, to your story.”

Skirts part of exhibit

Naseem and 19 other students worked on their skirts for a month under the guidance of their teacher Connie Collins and Mohawk artist Joyce Jonathan Crone, who is 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. In October, the exhibit will move to Canadore College in North Bay.

Crone is a retired teacher with the Waterloo Catholic District School Board and also the founder and president of Hope Arises Project, an Indigenous non-profit based in Huntsville. She organized the exhibit and this is the second year for it.

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

The ribbons skirts “are an example of the sacredness of Indigenous women,” Crone said.

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

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

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

Former Huron Heights teacher Connie Collins said the impact from this unique project. is something that you can’t create in a lesson plan and find in any curriculum outline. (Submitted by Joyce Jonathan Crone)

‘It grew exponentially’

Joyce and Collins are friends and that’s why 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 … I could not 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 goes off. That’s what this is about. And so that’s exactly what would happen with these skirts.”

Student Amber Naseem named her ribbon skirt Emily Redbreast and dedicated a poem to the young girl who died in 1923. Naseem’s story inspired an educational story for students from grades 7 through to grade 12 that will be available, along with a teacher resource guide in early 2025. (Submitted by Joyce Jonathan Crone)

Collins says one student approached her after the projects were completed to say they hadn’t understood what it meant to be part of a reconciliation, but making the skirts and reflecting on them, the student told her they began to understand the process.

Crone says Naseem’s skirt and poem inspired her non-profit ‘Hope Arises’ to create an educational story for students from grades seven to 12.

The illustrated chapter book called The Emily Redbreast Story: Remember Us will include an accompanying teacher resource guide, which will be 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 another class assignment.

“Over time it kind of grew,” she said. “I just feel like it means so much more to me.”

The original orange ribbon Naseem received with Redbreast’s name on it at the start of the project remains on her school bag now.