Learn about the importance of Ojibwe ribbon skirts and the traditions they honor with a young girl and her grandmother through the years.
Themes: tradition, female empowerment, gratitude
Photo Source: Jaida Grey Eagle
About the Author and Honored Guest
Marcie R. Rendon is an enrolled member of the White Earth Nation, author, playwright, poet, and freelance writer. Also a community arts activist, Rendon supports other native artists / writers / creators to pursue their art, and is a speaker for colleges and community groups on Native issues, leadership, writing. She is an award-winning author of a fresh new murder mystery series, and also has an extensive body of fiction and nonfiction works. The creative mind behind Raving Native Theater, Rendon has also curated community created performances such as Art Is… Creative Native Resilience, featuring three Anishinaabe performance artists, which premiered on TPT (Twin Cities Public Television), June 2019. Rendon was recognized as a 50 over 50 Change-maker by MN AARP and POLLEN in 2018. Rendon and Diego Vazquez received a 2017 Loft Spoken Word Immersion Fellowship for their work with women incarcerated in county jails.
-Bio taken from Marcie Rendon’s website
About the Illustrator
Mangeshig Pawis-Steckley is a multi-disciplinary Anishinaabe artist from Barrie, Ontario and a member of Wasauksing First Nation. He currently resides in the unceded territories of the Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsliel-Waututh people (Vancouver,BC). He is an award winning children’s book illustrator and author whose work explores themes of language revitalization, ancestral knowledge sharing, and memory.
-Bio taken from Pawis-Steckley’s website
Photo Source: HarperCollins Publishing
Discussion Questions
Photo Source: Stitches of Tradition
Why do you think the girl’s ribbon skirt followed her throughout the different important events in her life?
What do you think is the importance of the book ending with the girl’s coming of age ceremony?
“Traditions stitch together generations with love” is a phrase repeated throughout the book. What do you think that means? What does it mean to you?
Learning Activities
What are some details you can pick out throughout the book that you initially missed?
Discuss the ways the book shows the passing of time. Why do you think they chose to portray it that way?
Near the end of the book, the girl begins to help with her grandmother’s ribbon skirt. What do you think is the significance of this?
Photo Source: Stitches of Tradition
Explore More
Photo Source: Stitches of Tradition
Learn more about the history and importance of the ribbon skirt in Native communities in this article.
In this article, read about the Ojibwe coming-of-age tradition for young women and its revival.
Learn more about the Every Child Matters Movement in this article from Cultural Survival.
Do you want to learn even more words in Ojibwe? Visit the Ojibwe People’s Dictionary online!
