Mortified about menstruation? Some Indigenous youth learn to celebrate it instead

Jessica Wong · CBC Radio

· Posted: Mar 25, 2025 4:00 AM EDT | Last Updated: 10 minutes ago

The outpouring equinox has conscionable passed, but Cutcha Risling Baldy's summertime docket is already looking jam-packed, arsenic younker from her Hupa assemblage hole to observe thing their tween peers whitethorn beryllium apprehensive astir oregon adjacent debar discussing: their archetypal period.

Risling Baldy has helped foster the resurgence of the Hupa Flower Dance, a ceremonial honouring the commencement of menstruation. Her daughter, who took portion a fewer years ago, belongs to a caller procreation openly talking astir and reasoning of menstruation successful a affirmative light. 

Revived by a radical of Hupa women, the Flower Dance is simply a rite of transition that celebrates, guides and empowers young menstruators arsenic they statesman their modulation into adulthood. 

Not celebrated openly for much than 100 years, "now, it's specified a portion of our beingness and our lives we couldn't ideate a satellite without it," the subordinate prof of Native American studies astatine California State Polytechnic University Humboldt successful Arcata, Calif., told Unreserved.

It's conscionable 1 effort among galore that Indigenous women are starring to displacement the communicative astir menstruation. They're doing distant with shame and stigma successful favour of honouring and supporting a young person's archetypal play arsenic an important and ineffable modulation successful their life.

"When you creation for somebody, erstwhile you sing for them, erstwhile you halt the satellite for 5 oregon 7 oregon 10 days for them, they cannot turn up successful a satellite reasoning that they are nothing," said Risling Baldy, who is Hupa, Karuk, and Yurok and enrolled successful the Hoopa Valley Tribe.

"They cognize that the full satellite volition halt to observe them and the full satellite volition halt to amusement them however important they are — and past they volition crook astir and bash that for the adjacent miss and the next."

Revival normalizes speech of menstrual period

Once openly practised, the Hupa Flower Dance was a ceremonial pushed underground during the mid-19th period Gold Rush era, erstwhile Indigenous radical were targeted with acts of unit by settlers arriving successful bluish California, said Risling Baldy, who documented the ceremony's instrumentality successful her publication We Are Dancing For You. 

"It became precise unsafe for america to bash this creation due to the fact that it was celebrating a young woman. It was bringing women together…. It was demonstrating however important they are politically and socially."

Risling Baldy counts herself among those who, successful her youth, had internalized Western patriarchal perspectives astir women — including a antagonistic cognition astir menstrual periods arsenic dirty, thing to beryllium hidden oregon consciousness ashamed astir — successful the lack of ceremonies similar the Flower Dance.

Now, however, not lone are young Flower Dance participants rejecting those antagonistic narratives, its revival is normalizing unfastened treatment astir menstruation, including among boys, men and elders of the community, Risling Baldy said. 

That breaking down of barriers, she says, tin yet marque it easier for young women to unfastened up astir immoderate challenges oregon concerns successful their future.

Marking a 'Welcome to Womanhood' year

Lenaape and Anishinaabe Elder Tracey Whiteye has besides seen the affirmative interaction of much radical learning accepted teachings that celebrate menstruation — known arsenic satellite clip — done her relation arsenic a taste pedagogue from the Delaware Nation of the Thames successful Ontario municipality Chatham-Kent.

When a young idiosyncratic starts their archetypal menstrual cycle, it kicks disconnected a twelvemonth ("13 moons") of ceremonies and learning from aunties, grandmas and others. "It's similar we observe a 'Welcome to Womanhood' year," she said. 

"It's teaching them astir themselves. It's teaching self-confidence, self-esteem. It's teaching them [how] we — arsenic aunties and grandmothers and relatives — volition ticker her arsenic she grows."

It's not lone the young who payment either. Whiteye recalled being approached erstwhile by a subsister of the Sixties Scoop — the decades-long play successful Canada erstwhile Indigenous children were taken from their families and fostered with non-Indigenous radical acold distant (or abroad), with galore losing interaction with their culture. 

Seeing her granddaughter hole for her archetypal satellite clip and berry accelerated — a clip of abstinence from eating berries, which clasp peculiar value — the pistillate asked astir participating arsenic well, having ne'er had the accidental herself. 

"When you speech astir satellite clip and you speech astir berry fasting… we speech astir [the] value of individuality and consciousness of belonging," Whiteye said. 

"It is that accidental for that inner-child healing for that grandma."

Creating abstraction for antithetic conversations

Promoting acquisition astir menstruation arsenic a clip of power, resilience and spot — challenging the conception it's thing dirty, messy oregon to beryllium kept concealed — is 1 of the newer initiatives of Moon Time Connections, founded by Nicole White, who is Métis from Treaty 6 Territory successful Saskatchewan. 

Since 2017, the radical has delivered much than 10 cardinal menstrual products to bluish and distant communities, wherever they whitethorn beryllium scarce oregon unavailable, overmuch much costly oregon considered a luxury. 

Currently supporting schools, shelters, wellness clinics, relationship centres and different partners successful astir 200 communities, their offerings scope from single-use pads and tampons to menstrual discs and cups, play underwear and cloth pads. 

More recently, aft consultations with section partners, White and her squad introduced grooming modules — separate ones for kids, teens and adults — to assistance facilitate section discussions astir a person's archetypal satellite time. 

Part of it involves inviting elders to stock accepted teachings and practices astir this coming-of-age ceremony, said White, who lives successful Saskatoon. 

"We've got a agelong mode to go. We're astatine the opening of this conversation, but I'm truly excited to perceive however this could interaction a young idiosyncratic present who's starting their period," she said.

"If we tin make abstraction for the adjacent procreation to consciousness empowered to inquire questions, make abstraction that doesn't person that shame-infused contented and language… [that's] immoderate truly almighty enactment that we tin do."