Bio -
Vina Brown (Haíɫzaqv and Nuu-chah-nulth) is a scholar, artist, and wellness advocate whose Haíɫzaqvḷa name, ƛ̓áqvas gḷ́w̓aqs, translates to Copper Canoe Woman. She is Adjunct Faculty in both the Native Studies Leadership Program and the Human Services Program at Northwest Indian College. She holds a BA in Native Studies and Leadership and a Master of Jurisprudence in Indigenous Law, and is currently pursuing a PhD in Indigenous Studies at the University of Alaska with a focus on knowledge systems, research, education, and pedagogy. Raised in her Haíɫzaqv homelands, Vina grew up immersed in cultural resurgence, ceremony, and Tribal Canoe Journeys.
Vina is the founder and designer behind Copper Canoe Woman, an Indigenous jewelry brand rooted in ancestral stories, adornment, and place-based design. She is also the co-founder of Rooted Resiliency, an Indigenous women-led nonprofit dedicated to community wellness, cultural healing, and reclamation. Across all her work, she advocates for land, culture, and collective well-being.
Interview -
Can you please share with readers about your journey to embrace fashion design as a career. Was it a passion from a young age?
My ancestors and people have always embraced craftsmanship, textile art, fine art, fashion, and adornment. We wove some of the most iconic robes, dresses, tunics, and other pieces. When colonizers came to our homelands, we integrated new materials, such as cloth and wool textiles, into our designs. British colonizers used ermine on their crowns and robes, and I believe they were inspired by the pelts extracted from our lands. We use ermine in a similar fashion.
I remember being in my room, trying to manipulate fabrics and change the look of things, but not yet having the skill set to bring my ideas to life. As my skills grew, I remember sewing little wallets, creating beadwork, and experimenting with different materials and techniques. I was also very inspired by mainstream fashion and design.
But one thing that has always been distinct to my experience is that I desperately wanted to see my culture represented in mainstream fashion. I was hungry for it. I remember whenever I would see something that looked somewhat tribal or something described as "Native-inspired," I would get so excited. At the time, I didn't fully understand that many of these designs had been extracted, stolen, and appropriated from our cultures.
We were so ignored as Indigenous peoples, yet fashion houses and designers were constantly extracting from our cultures without giving us credit. They would take inspiration from Indigenous designs without acknowledging where they came from, giving proper recognition, or actually working with Indigenous artists. And this wasn't happening only to Indigenous peoples here in North America, but to tribal peoples and cultures around the world.
Thankfully, things have shifted. While cultural appropriation and extraction still exist, there is so much more consciousness, awareness, and sensitivity around these issues today. There is a growing understanding of the importance of collaboration over extraction, which is something I deeply believe in and advocate for.
The little girl in me is always so happy when I see collaborations between Indigenous designers, artists, and mainstream Western fashion houses. Because that is exactly what I wanted to see growing up. I wanted to see our cultures represented, celebrated, and valued in these spaces. And now, when these collaborations are done ethically, the artists and their cultures are being acknowledged, credited, and compensated rather than simply extracted from.
How did you learn your skills?
I learned my skills growing up in a home that potlatched and practiced our culture. I learned to sew by sewing regalia, sewing buttons onto button blankets, and adding sequins to shawls. I learned to weave from my aunties and grandmothers. I learned how to design by watching artists.
I'm self-taught in a sense, but at the same time, I'm really not, because I come from people who have passed down our skills through the intergenerational transfer of knowledge, through watching, learning, and doing. That really is the praxis of Indigenous art. It's rooted in oral traditions and the passing down of knowledge. It's very somatic. You learn by doing, and you live it. It's tangible, and it's not something we just create for this show or that show. It's part of our everyday lives, our ceremonies, and our cultural practices.
For example, I received a grant this year that allowed me to create an entirely new set of dance regalia for a new song and dance that we're bringing out at a potlatch. We made shawls, aprons, and headpieces, and it was such a beautiful experience.
I really feel in my heart that this is such a beautiful way to learn, and I'm still always learning. I'm always open to developing new skills. That's something I learned from my grandmother: never think you know everything. There is always something more to learn.
I'm currently working on my doctorate, and once I finish, I would love to expand my sewing skills and learn more about the technical side of garment construction and clothing design. I'm not formally trained in that area, and it's something I would really love to explore further.
I already sew, bead, weave, design, and create, but I think there is something beautiful about continuing to grow as an artist and learning new aspects of the craft. For me, learning is lifelong, and it's deeply connected to the ways our ancestors passed knowledge from one generation to the next.
What comes easiest for you as a designer? What is hardest?
Honestly, ideas come the easiest to me. I have so many ideas, sometimes too many, and I don't always get the opportunity to execute them all. I think that's something I'm really blessed with. I'm constantly thinking, creating, and finding inspiration. I get inspired by the world around me. There is so much inspiration in this world.
I also use the hard stuff as inspiration. And when I say the hard stuff, I mean my childhood trauma, relational trauma, and the experiences I've had living in a colonial, racist society. We are living in a time when the realities of residential schools are still being denied, and we're witnessing so much backlash, racism, and ignorance from white settlers. I use those experiences to inspire my work, too. Recently, I had people steal my art and use it without my permission, and even that experience has become a source of inspiration for me.
So I don't just draw inspiration from the positive, or what we consider positive experiences. I'm also deeply inspired by the land, my people, our ceremonies, our potlatches, our children and youth, and the hope I have for our future.
I think that's a holistic approach to art. It's about not denying any part of ourselves because we are holistic beings. We are complex. We carry grief, joy, trauma, love, resistance, and hope, sometimes all at once. All of those experiences are part of who we are, and they can all inform what we create. So inspiration has never really been a challenge for me.
I also use the hard stuff as inspiration. And when I say the hard stuff, I mean my childhood trauma, relational trauma, and the experiences I've had living in a colonial, racist society. We are living in a time when the realities of residential schools are still being denied, and we're witnessing so much backlash, racism, and ignorance from white settlers. I use those experiences to inspire my work, too. Recently, I had people steal my art and use it without my permission, and even that experience has become a source of inspiration for me.
So I don't just draw inspiration from the positive, or what we consider positive experiences. I'm also deeply inspired by the land, my people, our ceremonies, our potlatches, our children and youth, and the hope I have for our future.
I think that's a holistic approach to art. It's about not denying any part of ourselves because we are holistic beings. We are complex. We carry grief, joy, trauma, love, resistance, and hope, sometimes all at once. All of those experiences are part of who we are, and they can all inform what we create. So inspiration has never really been a challenge for me.
What has been challenging is the business side of being an artist and designer. My art is so deeply personal to me, and capitalism can be such a grimy part of society. Having to put a monetary value on something that carries so much cultural, emotional, and spiritual meaning can feel like a paradox. I'm constantly trying to remain in relational accountability to my community and my culture, making sure that I'm not doing anything culturally inappropriate or compromising my values, while also trying to make a living and survive within a capitalist society.
That creates a lot of tension for me as an artist and designer. I can spend an incredible amount of time creating one piece, and then I have to charge a significant amount of money for it because of the labour, skill, and care that went into making it. I also recognize that many people who connect with my work may not have the financial means to purchase it. But at the same time, I have to honour my own worth, my labour, and the value of what I create
Another challenge is finding the right audiences and spaces for my work. I would love to see more of my pieces acquired by museum collections or private collectors who understand and appreciate the cultural and artistic significance of what I'm creating. Sometimes it's about getting my art in front of the right people who recognize its value beyond just a fashion piece or an accessory.
So I would say the easiest part is creating and imagining. The hardest part is navigating the systems around art, particularly the business of selling something that, for me, is so much more than a product.
Where do you find inspiration for new collections? How important is colour to your design process?
The inspiration for my newest collection was deeply personal. I recently attended a trauma-healing and rehabilitation program for women in Southern California, and it was, needless to say, transformative, life-changing, and deeply needed.
As the granddaughter of residential school survivors, the child of day school survivors, and someone who has experienced intergenerational trauma, familial trauma, relational trauma, sexual assault, and sexual abuse, I've been through a lot of experiences in my life surrounding trauma.
I was beginning to come into consciousness about how these experiences were impacting me, especially after becoming a mother. I started recognizing how trauma was showing up in my parenting, my business, my relationship with my spouse, and even in how I navigated the world as an entrepreneur, designer, and CEO.
They say entrepreneurship will reveal all your trauma. It will show you all the areas of yourself that you don't necessarily want to look at, the places and spaces where you struggle. And I reached a point where I couldn't run or hide from those parts of myself anymore. More importantly, I didn't want to. I wanted to heal them and address them. So I took time to care for myself, to address things I had suppressed and exiled, and to really do some deep work on myself.
It allowed me to address things somatically that I hadn't wanted to confront before. It also showed me a pathway to bringing my creativity forward while caring for parts of myself that I had neglected for so long. My inner child, my teenage self, the young woman I once was. All these different parts of myself that I had ignored or never really addressed, but that were still impacting how I moved through the world. And so this collection is really about that journey.
It's inspired by our origin and creation stories, our cosmology, our ancestors, and the relationships and connections that shape who we are. There is a swan look in the collection that connects to our creation stories. It's also inspired by a new ceremonial dance that we recently created for our family, which speaks to our ancestors coming down from the heavens. There is so much cosmology woven into this collection, and so many pieces that are deeply personal to me.
Colour is something I absolutely love exploring. I love using our ancestral materials, such as cedar bark, shells like abalone, and our traditional shapes and forms, and bringing them into full fruition through contemporary design. I love exploring how these elements can exist in the present while still carrying the knowledge and beauty of our ancestors.
It's inspired by our origin and creation stories, our cosmology, our ancestors, and the relationships and connections that shape who we are. There is a swan look in the collection that connects to our creation stories. It's also inspired by a new ceremonial dance that we recently created for our family, which speaks to our ancestors coming down from the heavens. There is so much cosmology woven into this collection, and so many pieces that are deeply personal to me.
Colour is something I absolutely love exploring. I love using our ancestral materials, such as cedar bark, shells like abalone, and our traditional shapes and forms, and bringing them into full fruition through contemporary design. I love exploring how these elements can exist in the present while still carrying the knowledge and beauty of our ancestors.
For me, this process is deeply spiritual. It's about reaching back to our ancestral ways of being, knowing, and teaching, while also reaching forward into the future. There is a lot of futurism in my work. It's about imagining what is possible while remaining deeply connected to where we come from. I really feel in my body that this collection represents a metamorphosis for me. It's not just about doing art anymore. It's about living my art, becoming my art, and allowing it to be part of my healing and self-expression. And I hope that resonates with people.
When I graduated from the healing program, I shared three of the pieces I had created and spoke about the journey each one represented. They were connected to the chakras and different parts of my healing. One piece moves down the body, representing that journey. There is a moon that represents our inner selves, and a sun that represents my sunshine, my son, the light, and what we show the world. Each piece carries its own meaning, and the collection is deeply metaphorical.
And that's how our ancestors were. They took their lived experiences, whether those were floods, famines, relationships, or other significant events, and transformed them into stories. They created connections through those stories, calling on supernatural beings and deities for guidance and help. Those experiences and stories were recorded and passed down through our art.
And so, in many ways, I'm just a modern Haíɫzaqv and Nuu-chah-nulth woman doing the same thing. I'm telling stories through my art, speaking to where I am in my life and career, and expressing what I know through my lived experiences as an Indigenous woman. And I think that's something I will continue doing for the rest of my life.
What can you share about the new collection you will be showing at Vancouver Indigenous Fashion Week (VIFW) 2026? Does color play an important role?
Colour absolutely plays an important role in my design process. I love colour, and I love exploring how different colours, textures, materials, and shapes interact with one another. I think colour can evoke emotion, tell stories, and create connections. It can be playful, bold, dramatic, or deeply symbolic.
For this collection, I really wanted to explore the relationship between our ancestral aesthetics and contemporary fashion. I use a lot of colour in my work, but I also love contrast and the way different materials can bring a design to life. Whether it's the iridescence of abalone, the natural tones of cedar bark, or the combination of different textiles and metals, I'm interested in how these elements work together to create something visually compelling.
What can you share about the new collection you will be showing at Vancouver Indigenous Fashion Week (VIFW) 2026? Does color play an important role?
Colour absolutely plays an important role in my design process. I love colour, and I love exploring how different colours, textures, materials, and shapes interact with one another. I think colour can evoke emotion, tell stories, and create connections. It can be playful, bold, dramatic, or deeply symbolic.
For this collection, I really wanted to explore the relationship between our ancestral aesthetics and contemporary fashion. I use a lot of colour in my work, but I also love contrast and the way different materials can bring a design to life. Whether it's the iridescence of abalone, the natural tones of cedar bark, or the combination of different textiles and metals, I'm interested in how these elements work together to create something visually compelling.
This collection is deeply connected to my healing journey, our cosmological stories, the divine feminine, and the relationships between our ancestors, the land, and the supernatural world. Colour becomes another way of expressing those stories. It's not always about assigning one specific meaning to a colour, but rather about how the colours make us feel and what they evoke.
I also love the freedom to experiment. I don't believe Indigenous fashion needs to exist within a particular aesthetic or colour palette. Our ancestors were incredibly innovative, creative, and expressive, and I think we carry that same spirit forward today. For me, it's about honouring those ancestral foundations while having the creative freedom to explore, imagine, and make something entirely new.
Do you have a favorite look?
I actually have two favourite looks because they are both so deeply personal to me. One is named after my son, and the other is the moon look. Both carry a lot of meaning for me and are connected to my healing journey, my motherhood, and different parts of myself. They're more than just designs to me. They're deeply personal expressions of my life and the stories I'm telling through this collection.
I actually have two favourite looks because they are both so deeply personal to me. One is named after my son, and the other is the moon look. Both carry a lot of meaning for me and are connected to my healing journey, my motherhood, and different parts of myself. They're more than just designs to me. They're deeply personal expressions of my life and the stories I'm telling through this collection.
Where can readers purchase your designs?
On my websites at www.coppercanoewoman.com (USA) or www.canoewoman.ca
In closing, is there anything else you'd like to share with readers ?
I think what I would love for people to take away from my work is that Indigenous fashion is so much more than fashion. It's storytelling, it's cultural expression, it's resistance, it's healing, and it's a continuation of our ancestral knowledge and ways of being.
I'm really grateful to be part of this movement of Indigenous designers and artists who are reclaiming space, challenging narratives, and showing the world that our cultures are not static. We are living, breathing, evolving peoples. We are contemporary, we are innovative, and we are deeply connected to our ancestors.
For me, this collection represents a new chapter in my life, both personally and creatively. I've been doing a lot of healing, unlearning, and rediscovering parts of myself, and that has really transformed the way I approach my art. I'm learning that I don't have to separate the artist from the woman, the mother, or the person who is healing. All of those parts of me exist together, and they all inform what I create.
On my websites at www.coppercanoewoman.com (USA) or www.canoewoman.ca
In closing, is there anything else you'd like to share with readers ?
I think what I would love for people to take away from my work is that Indigenous fashion is so much more than fashion. It's storytelling, it's cultural expression, it's resistance, it's healing, and it's a continuation of our ancestral knowledge and ways of being.
I'm really grateful to be part of this movement of Indigenous designers and artists who are reclaiming space, challenging narratives, and showing the world that our cultures are not static. We are living, breathing, evolving peoples. We are contemporary, we are innovative, and we are deeply connected to our ancestors.
For me, this collection represents a new chapter in my life, both personally and creatively. I've been doing a lot of healing, unlearning, and rediscovering parts of myself, and that has really transformed the way I approach my art. I'm learning that I don't have to separate the artist from the woman, the mother, or the person who is healing. All of those parts of me exist together, and they all inform what I create.
I'm excited to share this collection at Vancouver Indigenous Fashion Week and to be in community with so many incredible Indigenous creatives. I hope people see themselves in these stories, feel something when they experience the work, and recognize the beauty and power of our cultures.
And I hope that little Indigenous girls who are hungry to see themselves represented in fashion, just like I was, can look at what we're creating today and know that there is space for them, their stories, and their creativity in this world.
Links -
Links -
- Website - www.coppercanoewoman.com (US) or www.canoewoman.ca (CA)
- Instagram - @coppercanoewoman
- Facebook - www.facebook.com/coppercanoewoman
- Tiktok - @coppercanoewoman
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