Let us introduce you to a brand new industry where beauty, health and culture are all intertwined. Made for us by us, in a modern contemporary urban world. Aboriginal fashion extends way beyond runways, it is not just about how it looks, it’s about how it is made. The process of creating the clothing, the jewellery and the footwear is even more important than what the articles look like in the end. And we’re not just talking about regalia or traditional clothing. Designers have found original and gorgeous ways to combine tradition and fashion avant-garde. A decade ago only a handful of Aboriginal designers could actual state that fashion was a career. Now, there are stores, magazines, website and events dedicated to Indigenous designers across Canada. And most importantly, they have customers.

Standards of beauty – now, there’s a truly subjective issue! While it’s an easy enough task today to consult fashion archives from recent years, the challenge becomes far more complex to try and chart as elusive a topic as shifting concepts of beauty among indigenous peoples, especially as they applied to a distant past when oral tradition was the primary form of history. Add to that the need to approach such an elusive subject with numerous different Aboriginal nations, each with its own, often-complex history, customs, tradition – and therefore, inevitably, standards of beauty. It’s a safe bet that some grey areas may well remain, even under the most arduous scrutiny. Yet, these quibbles aside, the subject remains an interesting one which undoubtedly deserves attention, if only to debunk some myths that have lingered on for far too long! Keywords: race, indigenous, ethnicity.