Indigenous Brilliance

The Indigenous Brilliance Collective contributes to various collaborations between Room Magazine, Massy Arts and art ecosystem. Our work is centred in celebrating Indigenous women/trans/2S/queer storytellers. Further, we have grown to prioritize active uplifting and space holding for Black, Indigenous and Afro-Indigenous creatives as a practice of embodied cross cultural solidarity building and kinship connection.

“We believe that this is an incredibly important time to be centering Indigenous stories and to be shining the spotlight on the brilliance that exists in our communities”.

We hope that the Indigenous Brilliance series will reflect this belief. The series grew out of the shared desire of Massy Books owner Patricia Massy and Room Magazine editorial board members Jónína Kirton and Jessica Johns to raise the voices of Indigenous women/trans/2S/queer writers. Later, jaye simpson, Emily Dundas Oke, Karmella Benedito De Barros, and Lexi Mellish Mingo joined the ever growing collective. Most recently, Emma Jeffrey (Community Engagement Coordinator) and Tara Preissl (Social Media) joined the collective. Each member offers Indigenous Brilliance an invaluable set of skills, ideas, perspective and energy. We are grateful to share creative and organizational space together, and hope to continue growing into the future as a collective.

This series is the result of different communities coming together with a shared vision of Indigenous resurgence: a resurgence that exists through the act of making space for ourselves and each other, through community building, and through the radical act of living and loving. We want to celebrate Indigenous stories, the different ways we think, share, and perform. We hope this series will allow us to come together to stand behind those voices while we’re standing with each other.

Keep up to date with our events, workshops, podcast episodes and more on this page and on our social media below!

Origin Story

Indigenous Brilliance (IB) is rooted in and takes place on the unceded and ancestral territories of the xwməθkwəy̓ əm (Musqueam), səlilwəta’Ɂɬ (Tsleil-Waututh), and Sḵwx̱ wú7mesh (Squamish) First Nations peoples colonially known as Vancouver, BC.

As a collective, we believe that this is an incredibly important time to be centering Indigenous and Black stories, and to be shining the spotlight on the brilliance that exists in our communities. In the past, IB has hosted a number of in-person and online events, readings, and workshops focused on our collective values. Throughout the years, IB has grown and adapted to reflect what Indigeneity means to us on Turtle Island, by exploring what our work looks like in conversation with global Indigeneity and the global entanglement of colonialism and imperialism. We celebrate our own Indigeneity, while also creating opportunities for solidarity building across 2SQTBIPOC experiences.

The Indigenous Brilliance Collective grew out of the shared desire of Massy Books owner Patricia Massy and Room Magazine editorial board members Jónína Kirton and Jessica Johns to raise the voices of Indigenous women, Two Spirit, and queer writers. Later, jaye simpson, Emily Dundas Oke, Karmella Benedito De Barros, Lexi Mellish Mingo, Madeson Singh, Meghan Eaker, Tara Preissl and Emma Jeffery joined the ever growing collective. Each member offers IB an invaluable set of skills, ideas, perspective, and energy.