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[bright piano music]

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- Aerius Benton-Banai:
When I started dancing jingle,

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I was going through a tough time
in my life.

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These dresses healed me,
and...

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They mean everything to me.
[inhales]

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Hold on, one sec.

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[dresses jingle]
[drumming]

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The jingle dress
comes from my people,

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the Ojibwe people.

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It's believed to be a healing
dress, a medicine dress.

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And part of that medicine
comes from the sound.

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[dresses jingle]
[drumming]

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It's almost like washing away
sicknesses and illnesses.

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Whatever that may be, physical,
mental, emotional.

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[match strikes]

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A lot of my inspiration comes
from our cultural knowledge,

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our cultural teachings that
I've learned from our elders,

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a lot of my grandmothers
and aunties.

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Some of my dresses are inspired
by the natural world.

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[water rushes]

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[bright music]

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So, I love to create dresses
that are very contemporary.

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But also reflect the knowledge

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with respect
to the medicine dress.

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I highly respect this dress
and what it brings

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and what it means
to the community.

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But I also see this dress
moving forward into the future,

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which I'm really, really proud
to be a part of.

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So, I just got done
doing an interview.

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In this interview,

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we talked about my journey
of being a jingle dress dancer,

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a jingle dress designer.

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[gentle piano music]

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I've learned a lot about what it
means to be a part of community

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and what it means to be
an Indigenous woman

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in today's society.

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When you heal yourself,
you can heal your family.

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And when you heal your family,
you can heal your community.

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And it is so powerful
to be a jingle dress designer,

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but also a jingle dress dancer.