TikTok Canada acknowledges and celebrates Indigenous Peoples' traditional and contemporary ties to their lands, and we are grateful to share this space. We thank Indigenous creators 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.

This National Indigenous History Month (NIHM), we're celebrating Indigenous voices as they share their rich culture and traditions across our global platform. On TikTok, Indigenous creators use music, visual art, design, dance and oral storytelling to share their traditions and personal experiences as proud members of Indigenous communities. Across hashtags like #IndigenousTikTok, #IndigenousMusic, #IndigenousArt and more, Indigenous creators have shared their stories, culminating in billions of views around the world.

At TikTok, we recognize the incredible power in being able to tell your own stories. Indigenous creators continue to be a crucial part of making TikTok the diverse and dynamic storytelling platform it is today, in Canada and around the world. To make originators known, celebrate the content they create on #IndigenousTikTok and further amplify Indigenous creatives' work, this NIHM, and throughout the year, we will be launching on and off-platform initiatives to honour - and amplify - their contributions.

Spotlighting #IndigenousTikTok

From science to entrepreneurship, activism and more, Indigenous communities have incorporated new and exciting ways to engage global audiences and share their culture, traditions and lived experiences. To kick off National Indigenous History Month, we'll be highlighting four Indigenous creators—Jocelyn Joe-Strack (@auntyjocey), Vanessa Brousseau (@resilientinuk), Boslen (@boslen) and Christina King (@taalrumiq) as part of our Creator Spotlight Series, so you can get to know incredible these creators more.

Origin Stories: Introducing Culture of Credit

On TikTok, celebrating diverse voices is deeper than just sharing their stories – it is at the core of our beliefs. Last month, to ensure this remained a focal point of our platform, we introduced new tools to acknowledge and better enable creator credit. A culture of credit amplifies voices in the creator community by providing a space to support trend originators (like @jamie32bsh's Nelly Furtado "Say It Right" trend), sounds and original content creation across our platform. These new tools provide creators and users alike the opportunity to directly tag, mention and credit videos to help recognize their innovative contributions on the platform, strengthen communities and continue to foster creativity.

#IndigenousArt: From Screen to Gallery

Art can be an expression of life and experiences – a way to connect generations without words. To continue to uplift and empower Indigenous artists, TikTok supported the creation of the National Women's Association of Canada's upcoming showcase of art by Indigenous youth and women, exploring the theme of what resiliency looks like. This showcase is set to open on National Indigenous Peoples Day, June 21, 2022 in Ottawa, ON.

#IndigenousMusic at the Heart (and Sound) of Culture

TikTok continues to be a springboard for songs and artists and we want to help our community discover more Indigenous music. Throughout the month, we will highlight music by Indigenous artists with several initiatives, including a custom playlist highlighting music of all genres, and a feature that celebrates some of our favourite music creators: Boslen (@boslen), Hotel Mira (@hotelmira), Sebastian Gaskin (@sebastiangaskin), Adrian Sutherland (@attaboyadrian) and Noelle (@noelleofficial).

Discover Indigenous Small Businesses

Indigenous storytelling also supports local economies. Many businesses use ancestral designs, weaved together with modern elements to create products that are true to a rich history, with an added contemporary flair.

Whether it's brands that increase Indigenous representation in the beauty industry or e-commerce shops that centre Indigenous brands or support local communities, TikTok is honoured to play a role in helping businesses get discovered. Explore Indigenous-owned small businesses like apparel and lifestyle brand @westcoast.wildflowers, beauty brand @cheekbonebeauty, jewellery brand @coutukitsch, art and ribbon skirt maker @4generationscreations and more.

We're committed to being a safe, inclusive platform for creators to tell their stories. And we're excited to honour Indigenous creators with our TikTok community around the world - both throughout this National Indigenous History Month, and the rest of the year.

Check out #IndigenousTikTok, #IndigenousMusic and #IndigenousArt and join us as we celebrate their individuality!