Dakota Plains woman thrilled to happen upon Indigenous Fashion Week in Toronto

A Dakota Plains First Nation resident visited Toronto while on assignment with a national broadcasting company to get a story out for Indigenous History Month. Sophia Smoke happened upon Indigenous Fashion Week that was taking place there. 

“All the cool people were going to be there. We took that as the perfect opportunity, our hook and our anchor into our story, to talk about Indigenous expression, artistry, and how talented people are. It was a chance to talk about a newer thing for us as Indigenous people to express ourselves through fashion.”

She notes it is a new genre, but some artists appeared as though they’d been doing it forever. 

“We Indigenous people have always been fashionable. We’ve always been artists, designers, and seamstress people. To see that come to fruition and to take our place to make space for ourselves was really important. I thought it was also really important to get out to the youth, as well.”

She notes they filmed a new television special for Kids News.

“We do explainers which are like two to four-minute videos. This one was a special, so we got about I think seven to eight minutes of run time for Indigenous History Month. There’s a YouTube video and an article detailing my experience at the fashion show. I was nominated for two awards with our company. I was nominated for best hosts for the same piece. It was the Canadian Screen Awards. It was kind of um perfect timing, I didn’t win, but now that I know that there are awards to be had, I’m telling my team, ‘Imagine what we can do now that I know.’  So, it’s really exciting. It was really inspirational to get there and to hear all the big people — we call them the big news — to hear them give their speeches. I was really inspired.”

She adds she was the youngest person there, and feels lucky to have been there and really happy. 

Miss Manito Ahbee

Smoke also won the nomination for Miss Manito Ahbee this past May.