Extensions

Trauma-Informed & Age-Appropriate Framing

When working with younger students (Grades 5–8), the subject matter of missing and murdered family members requires careful handling to avoid unnecessary trauma, while still respecting the core message of advocacy, empathy, and using one's voice.

Extension A: Ribbon Skirt - What's in a Name

1. Watch the Ribbon Skirt introduction video below.
2. Why would naming a band Ribbon Skirt carry a "responsibility" rather than just being a catchy label?
3. What is the difference between using a cultural symbol and representing a cultural symbol?
4. How does intergenerational dialogue (a mother's caution vs. a young musician's creative vision) shape Indigenous art today?
5. Student Activity: Write a brief reflection on a symbol, title, or value from their your own heritage or community that carries a deep level of responsibility.

Extension B: Reflecting on Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women

1. Watch the video below featuring Tashiina Buswa and Billy Riley from Ribbon Skirt.
2. In the video, Tashiina mentions that their song 'Wrong Planet' connects with people because it gets to the heart of the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls crisis. Before watching this video, had you heard about the MMIWG crisis or seen the red dress symbol? What, if anything, do you already know about this issue?
3. Now watch the Wrong Planet music video below and refer to the lyrics found in the resources?
4. Tashiina Buswa has described the song as being about "the feeling of being stuck in a world that you fundamentally don't fit into, and weighing the decision of whether to perform a different version of yourself to fit in." Who in society might feel that pressure most intensely, and why?
5. Red Lake is a First Nations community in Ontario, and the song references a woman disappearing near a highway. Knowing that Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women (MMIW) is a real and ongoing crisis in Canada, how does that context change how you hear those lines and the song?
6. Student Activity: If you were to write a few lines for your own "wrong planet" song that captures a moment of not fitting in, what would those lines be?