Meet the Indigenous Creator Using TikTok to Share her Culture and Craft

Janelle Alphonse started her apparel business, Indiginize Creation, with a pyrography pen and just a few hats.

The lifelong creative was looking for a way to work for herself with her art while bringing the culture of her Secwépemc (Shuswap) and Nêhiyaw (Cree), from T’exélc (Williams Lake First Nation), Indigenous heritage to the forefront of her work.

One day, Alphonse got inspired by the hats at a Western store with designs branded on them with a soldering iron. “I was like, ‘I feel like I can do that, but freehand,'” she says.

Since officially starting Indiginize Creation in 2023, Alphonse has expanded her custom, freehand burnt product line beyond fedora hats. She sells her pieces, which now include vests, jackets, pants, boots and purses, at markets around Canada, recently at the Cloverdale Rodeo in Surrey and the River Cree Night Market in Alberta, and in select stores.

Burning designs into the hats is a creative choice, Alphonse says, but it’s one that still has significance for her. “My ancestors used to use the red dyes on paint that are still on those rocks today, and they’re stamping that into our history so that it’s seen for many generations to come,” she says, adding that she wanted to play off that permanence with her work. “Paint wears, felt wears, pen wears, but burning is forever.”

For Alphonse, Indiginize Creation is more than just a business. “I feel like my brand really represents empowerment, taking back spaces, but keeping our Indigenous culture and our teachings alive through art,” she says.

Growing on Social Media

Through it all, she’s shared her art and her culture on social media. “I want to not only reach our Indigenous people, but especially our youth, to show that our language, our humour, our designs, our teachings belong online.”

In 2026, Alphonse was named alongside 10 Indigenous creators and business owners from across the country to the 2026 #IndigenousTikTok Voices to Watch list. Alphonse is among creators like Crystal Harrison Collin and Mr Christopher, who are making an impact through their storytelling, entrepreneurship and creativity on the platform.

“Being on this list just motivates me to keep showing up in that authentic way,” she says, “connecting to my community and grounding in who I am as an Indigenous creator.”

@indiginize_creation It be like that sometimes 🤭 Tell your people to call my people 💁🏽‍♀️ #indigenousbusiness #nativetiktok #indigenous #native ♬ original sound – Violets dreams

“TikTok has given me that platform to Indigenize the spaces that I move through, whether it’s fashion, art or entrepreneurship,” says Alphonse. “I’m honestly just so honoured to be beside some pretty elite, I like to say, deadly aunties and uncles.”

Alphonse notes that her stories are resonating beyond just her community. “In these last couple of years, Indigenous TikTok has really blown up,” she says, noting that thousands of people from diverse backgrounds are sharing their day-to-day lives across the country. “People are interested in learning more about our culture.”

Sharing Cultures

Alongside launching Indiginize Creation, Alphonse also started leading Pow Wow workshops. She’s been dancing Pow Wow since she was just two years old, and today she continues to compete and dance in Pow Wows across North America.

Over the past three years, Alphonse has taught over 300 workshops across schools, non-Indigenous corporate events and communities.

 

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“Holding those spaces for our people and teaching non-Indigenous people about our culture, about Pow Wow dancing, has really been so important to me, especially with having my grandparents as residential school survivors; those things were stripped away from them,” she says.

Her workshops focus on the dancing, the teachings behind each movement, the distinct styles of Pow Wow dancing and more. But before she starts each workshop, she touches on the history of Pow Wow, including her own family’s.

“Sometimes it can be very intimidating. Am I welcome there? Do I have to be invited? What do I do? What does the music mean?” she says. “I’m able to bridge that gap and really bring our people together as one.”

Alphonse hopes to do more workshops—and even venture beyond Pow Wow and ceremony to share more aspects of her culture, like art and song. “There are a lot of different avenues that I can go with my business, and I’m very excited.”

Indiginize Creation has also grown a lot in the past year since Alphonse added more apparel products. “TikTok has really helped with that, because I’ve gotten a huge following of non-Indigenous people who are interested in my stories, my songs or Pow Wow dancing,” she says.

“To be able to showcase not only my art, language or Pow Wow dancing, but even hunting and gathering on TikTok, and being able to show that to a lot of non-Indigenous people, really just is so prideful for me,” she says, “because it really shines a light on our people, and how we’re still living like our ancestors did.”

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