Ribbon skirt Barbie donation delights Regina family in time for Christmas

As soon as Tamara Woroschuk saw the Barbie dolls and their handmade outfits, carefully packaged in cellophane wrapping, she knew there had to be a story behind them.

“We get a lot of donations in, especially around Christmas time,” said Woroschuk, the development director for the North Central Family Centre in Regina.

“We don't see a lot of handmade gifts where people take the time and handcraft them themselves.” 

The dolls, donated for the centre's holiday toy drive, came with handmade ribbon skirts — ceremonial attire that represents resilience and strength for many Indigenous women.

Each one has two shirts — one orange and one green — black leggings for winter and a blue flower-patterned skirt, carefully adorned with yellow, purple and orange ribbons.

“This was very special,” Woroschuk said.  

She contacted the woman who dropped the dolls off, wanting to thank her and to learn more. 

The woman, who doesn't want to be identified, told Woroschuk she's been making the custom ribbon skirts for several years in honour of her niece, who the family lost when she was five years old.

“She made these in hopes of making other little girls happy,” Woroschuk said.

The woman told her she was inspired by the story of Isabella Kulak, a young member of Cote First Nation who sparked a national movement celebrating ribbon skirts after she was shamed by an education assistant for wearing hers to a formal day at her school in southeastern Saskatchewan in 2020.

Shortly after Woroschuk made a Facebook post about the donation, a second woman came to the centre with her own set of handmade ribbon skirts and Barbies. She also wishes to stay anonymous.

The centre ended up with 12 special Barbies.

Two of them made it into the hands of a pair of sisters, nine-year-old Mya and six-year-old Kimberly Kirkness-Henry. 

Ripping through holiday paper and ribbons at the centre recently, the girls were delighted.