Senator McPhedran: Senator Gold, is Canada doing what most other donors around the world are doing? Other donors are creating exemptions and other workarounds to allow the delivery of their humanitarian aid directly into organizations in Afghanistan without going through the Taliban. Are we doing the same thing?

Hon. Marilou McPhedran: Honourable senators, my question is to Senator Gold, the Government Leader in the Senate. Senator Gold, my question is about implementing Canada’s feminist foreign policy through humanitarian aid to Afghanistan. As I think you know, since August of last year I have worked with civil society and governments to try to assist Afghan women at high risk to get out of their country to relative safety. The World Food Programme and UNICEF tell us that we can expect over 1 million Afghan children to die of malnourishment in the coming months.

My question is about the proud moment last year when Canada promised over $56 million in humanitarian aid to be delivered inside the country of Afghanistan, but I’m advised by the Afghan Women’s Organization and others with direct communication lines into Afghanistan that it is not at all clear what is happening to that $56 million. Has it been expended? And if it has, has it been on humanitarian aid to those at risk in Afghanistan — women and girls in particular? Canada shut its embassy and Canadian officials were among the first to flee, so it is hard to get accurate information. Can the Government of Canada answer these concerns from civil society and provide details about more than $50 million in humanitarian aid?

Hon. Marilou McPhedran: Honourable senators, as a senator from Manitoba, I acknowledge that I am on Treaty 1 territory, the traditional lands of the Anishinaabe, Cree, Oji-Cree, Dakota and Dene, and the homeland of the Métis Nation.

[English]

I acknowledge that the Parliament of Canada is situated on unceded, unsurrendered Algonquin Anishinaabe territory and that we have people joining us from across Turtle Island who are located on both treaty and unceded lands of Canada’s Indigenous peoples.

Colleagues, I rise in support of Senator McCallum’s bill, Bill S-219, and I thank you for allowing me to speak to it at this point.

This is an inspiring step on the long, essential and sometimes uncertain path to reconciliation between nations within the borders of this country. Through this bill, we all have the opportunity to further respect, understanding and education of Indigenous culture and heritage, specifically the ribbon skirt which is a creation of Indigenous women cherished in Indigenous tradition and ceremony.

Today, I am honoured to wear my ribbon skirt, a gift from a wise woman in my life who also gave me the eagle feather that I carried into this chamber for the first time when I was sworn in — the indomitable Leslie Spillett, founding executive director of Ka Ni Kanichihk, which means “those who lead.”

Just a few days ago, we welcomed in this chamber the bereaved family of our beloved Senator Josée Forest-Niesing. Later that afternoon, we heard Josée’s sister talk about how she, Josée’s mother and friends completed the ribbon skirt that Josée began.

Senator Forest-Niesing had told us of being inspired by this bill, crafted, in the words of Senator McCallum, “turned an unfortunate incident into a platform for change through understanding and education.”

We here all know 10-year-old Indigenous student Isabella Kulak, who was so eager to wear her ribbon skirt, gifted by her auntie, to her school’s formal day and was instead shamed and told she should have worn a more formal outfit bought in a store like the other students.

The belittlement of Isabella’s ribbon skirt may seem innocuous or mild when compared to the violent systemic modes of racism and oppression often inflicted upon Indigenous peoples, but it illustrates insidious prejudice and discrimination that Indigenous peoples — so frequently women and girls — have experienced for generations. Senator McCallum helped us better understand how this impacted Isabella and alerted us all to the need for education, respectful listening and greater efforts to seek true reconciliation.

Please allow me to add a few observations of my own.

Agnes Woodward, from Kawacatoose First Nation in Saskatchewan, makes beautiful ribbon skirts made all the more poignant and powerful by how she describes her purpose:

The skirt is mostly about representation, and how Indigenous women choose to represent ourselves . . . . That’s why they’re so important today . . . because their voice has been taken away.

Ribbon skirts are traditionally worn for Indigenous ceremonies by women and girls, but they can also be iconic and symbolic, for example, to raise awareness about missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls.

Abigail Echo-Hawk, a Pawnee public health researcher, crafted a ribbon dress out of body bags to draw attention to the disproportional effect of COVID on Indigenous communities. She embroidered her personal mantra, “I am the tangible manifestation of my ancestors’ resiliency,” to highlight her connection to the past and future. Echo-Hawk says that she sews with loving energy:

Each ribbon is prayer. Each stitch is prayer and love and dedication to those people and when you make it, you can’t come from a place of anger, you can’t come from a place of bitterness.

Ms. Woodward made headlines in June 2021 at the swearing in of U.S. Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland, the first Indigenous person to hold such a position. She wore a beautiful Woodward skirt adorned with cornstalks, stars and butterflies, and was featured in news coverage.

Honourable senators, such a situation could typically be an example of a woman’s skill being belittled by commentary on what she wore, but that’s not actually what happened. Attention was harnessed by this skirt, and the message became one of power and worth.

Ms. Woodward further stated:

The ribbon skirt today reminds me that I have a power and that I carry a responsibility, to teach the future generations that they belong here and that they have the right to take up space however they choose . . . It’s about taking back the shame that I carried as a young girl.

Senator McCallum spoke eloquently and with much wisdom on the concept of “holding spaces,” the creation of safe environments where individuals — youth, in particular — can grow, learn, question and grapple with significant issues in a nurturing and supportive manner.

National ribbon skirt day is one example of this type of “holding space” as the aim is to celebrate identity, autonomy, reclaimed dignity, representation and to challenge outdated ways of seeing, of confronting entrenched stereotyping and prejudices and of reconciling and returning value.

In a work published in the Girlhood Studies: An Interdisciplinary Journal, Kari Dawn Wuttunee of the Red Pheasant Cree Nation and the Native Women’s Association of Canada, Jennifer Altenberg, a Michif educator from Saskatchewan, and Sarah Flicker of York University studied the issue of ribbon skirts as a form of cultural resurgence. They found that the act of sewing ribbon skirts brought Indigenous women together intergenerationally — young and old — to reclaim teachings, resist gender-based and colonial violence and reimagine their collective futures. Learning about the historical and cultural significance of ribbon skirts gave girls a stronger connection to their culture, community and each other. Wearing their ribbon skirts became an embodied act of resistance, resilience and self-determination.

These findings speak directly to the concept of positive holding spaces that youth need and deserve. It is important that such space go beyond those who traditionally identify with the ribbon skirt. It can encompass any and all who seek to reclaim value in their identities and cultural pride using regalia, customs and other traditions.

The ribbon skirt is one, poignant symbol of past erasure, racism and colonial attitudes. It is an intersectional symbol of how race, gender and equality have been twisted by colonial means of discrimination, and it can be a catalyst for change.

Now, at Kamsack Comprehensive Institute, the school where Isabella Kulak was shamed for wearing her ribbon skirt to a formal day, a ribbon skirt day is now celebrated on January 4. This year, over 100 students and staff wore skirts, many of which were made at school in the brand new classes on skirt making, beading and drumming that were introduced to respond positively to Isabella’s call for reconciliation, awareness and healing.

Honourable senators, many of us close our speeches with “thank you” in several languages, including meegwetch, but often Senator McCallum says — and today Senator Pate said — chi‑meegwetch. One day, Senator McCallum explained to me that this means “thank you,” but the added meaning is along these lines: Thank you with the intention to carry this forward in a good way.

Senator McCallum has asked us to stand with her and support not only this bill, but to stand with young Isabella and what she stands for — agency, identity, inherent dignity, positive self-affirmation of cultural identity and reconciliation.

On behalf of Isabella, and with visions of positive futures carried by these beautiful ribbon skirts, may I now ask for your support in calling the question on this bill? Chi-meegwetch.