Feb 5-15, 2027 • Hawrelak Park
Edmonton's longest running winter festival!
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Feb 5-15, 2027 • Hawrelak Park
Edmonton's longest running winter festival!
Saturday February 7th
Saturday February 14th
Dawn burnstick-abraham who comes from the alexander first nation treaty 6 and bighorn Indian reserve 7 territory
Women’s fancy shawl is amongst Native American communities, celebrated for it’s vibrant energy and graceful movements this style is characterized by intricate footwork and the guild movement of the shawl which dancers use to mimic the delicate fluttering of butterfly wings the dances origins are closely linked to the men’s fancy dance with both styles sharing similar roots and regalia.
Flora burnstick-abraham who comes from the alexander first nation treaty 6 and bighorn Indian reserve 7 territory
The Story of the Jingle Dress – A Dance of Healing, Resilience & Identity
Across powwows today, you’ll see women and girls move lightly to the drumbeat, their steps sending out a soft, melodic rain of sound – the unmistakable jingling of metal cones. This is the Jingle Dress, also known in Anishinaabe language as Shiibaashka’igan, one of the most important healing traditions in Native culture.
But this dance, now seen across North America, began with a single story.
More than a century ago, among Ojibwe communities in the Great Lakes region, the granddaughter of a medicine man fell gravely ill. As the story has been passed down, her grandfather dreamt repeatedly of four spirit women wearing a special dress covered in shining metal cones. In the dream, they taught him how to sew the dress, what songs to use, and how the dance should be performed to bring healing.
When he awoke, he created the dress exactly as shown to him. At first, the young girl was too weak to dance on her own. But with each step – supported by her community, connected to the earth, surrounded by prayer – she grew stronger. By the end, she danced independently. She healed.
The jingling sound – created by dozens, sometimes hundreds, of metal cones traditionally made from rolled snuff-can lids – was understood as spiritual medicine. Every step was a prayer. Every cone carried a message of healing.
From those early dresses in the 1920s – simple cotton garments dyed in deep colors – the tradition grew. By the 1950s the practice faded, but during the powwow resurgence of the 1980s, it returned and spread across Native nations. The tradition also became an official powwow dance category, thanks in part to women like Maggie White of Naotkamegwanning First Nation (Whitefish Bay), often called The First Lady of the Jingle Dress Dance.
In 2023, Canada formally recognized the Shiibaashka’igan – Jingle Dress as a National Historic Event, honoring its cultural and spiritual significance.
Today, the Jingle Dress is both ancient and modern.
It is worn at powwows, at gatherings, at healing events, and even at protest movements – a living symbol of identity, resistance, and the strength of Native women and Two-Spirit people.
Though fabrics have changed, colors have grown brighter, and beadwork has evolved, its meaning remains the same:
The Jingle Dress is a dance of healing.
A dance of prayer.
A dance that has carried communities through hardship, sickness, and suppression – and continues to do so today.
More than clothing, it is a link across generations.
A reminder that even in the hardest times, the teachings that carry us never disappear.
They simply wait for the right moment to be danced again.
Margaret burnstick-abraham who comes from the alexander first nation treaty 6 and bighorn Indian reserve 7 territory
The Women’s Northern Traditional Dance is a very dignified, graceful and modest dance that shows the strength, pride, respect and honour the women carry for their family, relatives and friends. There are usually three basic styles of Women’s Northern Traditional Dance.
The first style is the stationary dance. This style originated with the Lakota/Dakota/Nakota people in their small gatherings of long ago. The women would stand and bounce gently to the drum in honour of their family or relatives for whom the song was sung.
In these gatherings, the women would adorn themselves with their most elaborate quilled, beaded and decorated dresses and accessories. The outfit was personal and was created through dreams or traditional family designs. These dresses symbolized the industry, patience and steadfastness a woman must possess to complete such an enormous project.
the women danced in what is known as the circle dance, round dance. This dance is still performed as part of competitions of today, the women gracefully dance in a zigzag pattern around the edge of the arena. Their dance is in time with the drum-beat.
Our Mission: To provide for the education and enlightenment of Canadians about Canadian winter history, outdoor winter activities, and winter art forms and the promotion of the physical, mental and spiritual health and wellbeing of Canadians particularly during the winter months.
