Big auntie earring competitions a standout event at Treaty Days celebrations

The dog days of summer are when many First Nations hold Treaty Days — a time to collect a crisp $5 bill from a Government of Canada representative handing out the annual annuity payment to people with Indian status in most treaty territories.

The payment commemorates the historic agreements between First Nations and the Crown and reaffirms living treaty rights, while celebrating culture with feasts, craft shows and powwows.

But there’s a new star at Treaty Days this summer: competitions for the wildest so-called “big auntie earrings.” Competitors find creative ways to adorn their ears with humorous, oversized earrings.

Delanie Bruyere won the contest at the Treaty Days event at Sagkeeng First Nation, located an hour and a half northeast of Winnipeg. Her winning design incorporated coat hangers as earring hooks and cut up pool noodles carefully strung together as the bead design.

“The trend just sort of started this summer and kind of came out of nowhere but I’m glad it did,” said Bruyere. “It’s just awesome.”

As Indigenous-created earring styles grew and grew some more, it was only a matter of time before someone took big auntie earring fashion and turned it into a hilarious competition.

“We like to use humor in a lot of the things we do so what better way to take something that a lot of us wear with pride, like the earrings, and add some humor to it,” Bruyere said.

The trend has dominated summer on the Prairies of Canada and the plains of the U.S.

Past competitions have happened at Beaver First Nation in Alberta and Opaskwayak Cree Nation in Manitoba, while the Schemitzun Powwow in Connecticut is also expected to feature the event.

“I think it will stick around, I mean everyone loves it,” Bruyere said.

Other standout creations circulated on social media involved soda cans and pizza boxes, with entries limited only by imagination.