Ribbons of all descriptions, sizes, colours, and materials have been used to adorn outerwear for centuries. They denote rank, awards, and achievements in sporting events. Ribbons commemorated event attendance or participation and members of the organizing committees often received them as well. Wearing a particular ribbon could identify you as a member of a group, inviting conversation and kinship with others sharing the ribbon. I well remember people in Gimli displaying their ribbons showing all their years of attendance at the annual Icelandic Festival. I collected quite a few myself!

When I was young, I remember a French-Canadian friend of my father’s who would often come to visit on weekends. He had a significant depth of knowledge regarding French-Canadian history, and as I was a great admirer of La Verendrye and his adventures in Western Canada, I quizzed him constantly. This was a time when schools were locally funded and the curriculum was mainly British history, with very little Canadian history was taught.

On one of his visits, my father’s friend surprised me with the gift of a silk ribbon. He had received it when he was a committee member on one of the events during 1938’s nine day, bi-centennial celebration of La Verendrye’s landing at the Forks in Winnipeg.

He was involved the canoe event which took place on June 10, 1938. It was a joint effort between the Province, several churches, the cities of St. Boniface and Winnipeg, the Hudson Bay Company and the Winnipeg Canoe Club. After years of hardship during the economic catastrophe of the crop failures in the “Dirty Thirties”, the populace was ready for a celebration. (Despite rumblings in Europe, World War II was still a year away.)

My father’s friend was one of a small group tasked with getting the paddlers into character with their costumes and makeup. While there were limited funds available for the canoe event, he explained that there was no limit on the crowd’s energy or the level of participation. Over 700 canoes set out from the east side of the Red River, with many of the participants dressed in period costumes on loan from the HBC. He described the excitement of the hundreds of paddlers as they spread out on the river in such detail that I could almost hear the splashing and laughter myself.

Over the years I have received ribbons for achievement, participation and to mark special events. Many have been lost to time, but I still have the silk ribbon he gave to me more than 75 years ago. The La Verendrye event ribbon is a keepsake that brings back warm memories of storytelling at the kitchen table that fuelled my love of history. And now the ribbon is part of the passing parade.


Ken Kristjanson
December 2022

To learn more about La Verendrye and the 1938 bi-centennial celebration, the Manitoba Historical Society has a very thorough page on the topic at mhs.mb.ca