Viral Success and Ribbon Skirts: How One Designer Turned Culture Into Confidence

By Chevi Rabbit, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Alberta Native News For Doneese of Bull-Buffalo Designs, a ribbon skirt is never just clothing. It is identity, memory, and cultural continuity stitched into fabric and ribbon— something she says is felt the moment it is worn. “I just feel empowered when I put it on,” said Doneese, a mother and wife from Louis Bull Tribe in Maskwacîs, one of the Four Nations in central Alberta. “It just represents our culture. And it’s not just Cree—it’s all Indigenous. It just represents who we are.” For her, that sense of empowerment extends into everyda…