TikTok Canada acknowledges and celebrates Indigenous Peoples' traditional and contemporary roots to their lands, and we are grateful to share this space. We thank Indigenous creators, artists and small business owners for being a part of the TikTok community, and for trusting our platform as a space to share your stories, your knowledge, your culture and your joy.

Earlier this Fall, we announced the third edition of our TikTok Accelerator for Indigenous Creators, presented by the National Screen Institute. The program offers free, online, part-time sessions over six weeks, developed with both traditional and spiritual elements in mind and designed to empower Indigenous creators to grow their online presence and learn the essential skills for a thriving digital career.

This year saw more applications than ever before. Today, we're excited to share that an independent selection committee of Indigenous screen industry professionals, TikTok staff and Indigenous TikTok creators have chosen 40 participants from across Canada.

The program is lead by returning program advisor Sherry Mckay (@sherry.mckay), an Ojibway Anishinabe creator from Treaty 1 Territory, as well as program co-managers Sarah Simpson-Yellowquill, a filmmaker from Long Plain First Nation on Treaty 1 Territory and Erica Wilson, a Saulteaux artist/community connector from Treaty 1 Territory. We also welcome several creators as guest speakers, including Keisha Erwin (@wapahkesis) and more.

As we continue our commitment to supporting Indigenous storytellers and finding new ways to connect as a community both on and off platform, we're excited to announce that for the first time, we are hosting an in-person gathering for all 40 Accelerator participants, who will be joined by the 2023 #IndigenousTikTok Visionary Voices! We're continually inspired by the way creators foster community in-app, and excited to come together to connect IRL, and to celebrate the creativity and impact of this incredible community of First Nations, Inuit and Métis creators.

Congratulations to the 2023 participants, who are listed below. You can read more about each participant here.