Five Inuit creators named to TikTok Visionary Voices list

Inuit content creators are being recognized by TikTok for their use of the platform for storytelling, community building and for business as part of National Indigenous History Month in June.

TikTok Canada featured five Inuit creators from across the North on its Visionary Voices list, including Bernice Kootoo Clarke, Braden Kadlun, Christina King, Shina Nova, and Vanessa Brousseau.

Kootoo Clarke, the founder of the Uasau Soap Inc., a family-run bath and body product company based in Iqaluit, says she was floored when she found out she was named to the list.

“I sat down and I didn’t even say anything, it took the breath right out of my stomach,” she said. “It’s like everything that you strive for.”

Kootoo Clarke said that when she began creating her handcrafted all-natural products in 2012, it all started because she wanted soft skin.

Uasau Soap creates beauty products such as body butters, natural oils, bath products and skin-care remedies by incorporating ingredients including bowhead whale oil, tundra lichen from Nunavik, seaweed from Frobisher Bay, and bearded seal oil that are harvested from the land through traditional practices.

According to its website, the name Uasau comes from the English word “wash,” as pronounced by Baffin Island Inuit hundreds of years ago.

Kootoo Clarke uses her TikTok platform to share information about her business and the Inuktitut language, and to offer a glimpse into her day-to-day life.

“I love telling about my culture, it’s like I’ve been waiting for a way to tell my story on a platform,” she said of her use of TikTok.

“I created literally my own community in my life on my TikTok, I found people that I connect with, and I’m close to people I never met in person that I met through TikTok.”

For Vanessa Brousseau, TikTok has allowed her to use to her voice to advocate for missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls, create awareness about sealskin, Inuit culture, and share her creations.

Brousseau, an Ottawa-based artist and advocate who goes by Resilient Inuk on social media, began creating content in 2020 to raise awareness of issues Indigenous people face.

Now in her third year of operating her business, her website includes jewelry and other creations made with natural materials like seal fur, porcupine quills and walrus ivory.

“It really touches my heart,” Brousseau said on being named to the 2024 Visionary Voices list.

“TikTok has really opened up doors for me that no other platform or organization has,” she said in an interview.

She said she hopes to encourage other Indigenous people to use their voices and be proud of who they are.

Other Indigenous creators named to the list include Lakeeysha Marie, Shawnee Kish, Xavier Watso, and Harlan Kingfisher.