Matriarch Movement

Lesley Hampton is an Anishinaabe and Mohawk womenswear designer and artist based in Toronto whose fashion label is focuses on body positivity and Indigenous representation. Lesley’s brand offers collections that range from eveningwear to athleisure—Lizzo was recently seen working out in one of her two-piece sets. Lesley also believes in the importance of partnering with other Indigenous designers;...

Ilona Verley is Nlaka'pamux and the first Indigenous, Two-Spirit and LA-Based queen to appear on Canada's Drag Race, and in the franchise as a whole. Originally from so-called Vancouver, Ilona identifies as non-binary. She* auditioned for Drag Race a total of three times before making it onto the Canadian version of the show where she made it to 6th place, and appeared until episode 7. In this con...

Tanya Talaga does not need an introduction at this point: she is an award-winning Canadian journalist and author of Polish and Indigenous descent, and the First Ojibway woman to deliver the CBC Massey Lectures. Her book Seven Fallen Feathers, a national bestseller that tells the story of even Indigenous high school students who mysteriously died in Thunder Bay, won the 2018 RBC Taylor Prize. Throu...

Nimkish is a rising Indigiqueer pop artist living on the unceded territories of the Musqueam, Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh First Nations, known as Vancouver, Canada. Her first album, Heartbreak On The Coast, was released in 2019 and and her latest single, YSB, featuring artist ASCXNSION, came out just a few days ago, to her fans’ great delight. Her new album, Damage Control, was written during a pe...

This episode features host Shayla Oulette Stonechild in conversation with Nahanni Fontaine, a Canadian politician, MLA with the NDP in Manitoba, public speaker, advocate, and Indigenous Matriarch, about last week's erasure and censorship of posts about Missing Indigenous Women, Girls and 2-spirit by Instagram. In this raw conversation, Nahanni also opens up about her journey, with no details off l...

Originally from the US Pacific Northwest, Korina Emmerich was inspired to create clothes and accessories that honour her patrilineal Indigenous heritage from The Coast Salish Territory, Puyallup tribe. Today her brand, EMME Studio, is a fixture in leading fashion publications, and her approach to sustainable clothing is recognized by her peers and loyal clients across the US and globally. Focused...

Michelle Chubb, known by her handle @indigenous_baddie, is a 23-year-old social media star, with almost half a million followers on TikTok where she shares content blending Indigenous regalia, relatable anecdotes, and social justice activism. She is Néhinaw, or Swampy Cree, currently part of Oxford House, a First Nations Cree community in Northern Manitoba. Growing up in the city of Winnipeg, Mich...

Cheyenne Leskanic is of Mvskoke, Italian & Scottish ancestry and she is the founder of Three Medicines Longhouse & Three Medicines Birth. With a little over a decade of experience as a Yoga teacher, and as many years of recovery from substance addiction behind her, Cheyenne has made it her purpose to live in integrity and to create places of connection for all people. Drawing on her own experience...

“The history is not your fault, but it is absolutely your responsibility.” In this episode, host Shayla Oulette Stonechild speaks with decolonial educator Nikki Sanchez, a Pipil/Maya and Irish/Scottish academic, who is also an Indigenous media maker and environmental educator. Nikki holds a masters degree in Indigenous Governance and has completed her Ph. D. with a research focus on emerging visua...

“For too much of my youth I did worry about what my friends thought, I did worry about what boys thought and I did worry about what people I didn’t know thought of me.” Host Shayla Oulette Stonechild speaks with Tenille Campbell, a Dene and Métis poet, photographer and advocate for body positivity and for Indigenous rights from English River First Nation in Saskatchewan, Canada. Her acclaimed poet...

Host Shayla Oulette Stonechild speaks with Megan Tipler, a Métis, Edmonton-based educator and artist who believes in the power of representation, and of teaching Indigenous success. Last summer, when her classes moved online due to COVID-19, she came up with an idea to profile some of the people who inspire her most. Megan completed 30 illustrations, one for each day of Indigenous History Month, a...

“It’s because Indigenous people are constantly fighting our own erasure. The stereotypes that exist out there portray a certain image or behaviour about us that was chosen for us and not by us. Representation matters so much whether it’s from storytelling, through filmmaking — that way we don’t have harmful stories, narrative, perpetual violence cycles or harmful insensitive language being perpetu...

This first episode of Matriarch Movement features a conversation with Sierra Tasi Baker, lead design consultant at Sky Spirit Studio, the urban planning organization founded by her family on principles of ancestral governance, Indigenous law and respectful protocols. Sierra is from the Sḵwx̱wú7mesh Úxwumixw (Squamish Nation) and is also xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Kwakwaka’wakw/Musgamagw Dzawada'enux...

On Matriarch Movement, host Shayla Oulette Stonechild shares stories of Indigenous women, from Canada to Turtle Island and beyond. Through interviews where issues facing Indigenous women are brought to light, and with portraits that challenge the mainstream narrative around Indigenous identity, Matriarch Movement offers up a new category of Indigenous role models, to inspire the next seven generat...