Kirsten Lindquist (she/her & they/them) is a PhD student at the Faculty of Native Studies at the University of Alberta. She is a citizen of the Métis Nation of Alberta, with Cree-Métis and settler ancestry from the Moose Hills area, NE Alberta. Lindquist’s research focuses on relationality, governance, and sexual and gender diversity through arts and performance based practices. Kirsten has piloted alternative courses for the Faculty of Native Studies that integrate classroom, lab, and land-based learning experiences, such as Indigenous New Media and Indigenous Economies. Kirsten has been part of the Tipi Confessions production team since 2016. Their performance art and burlesque acts include the Indian Act Unitard and Pemmican Milkshake of the Beaver Hills Burlesque collective.

Photo Credit: Red Socks Photography

Brittany Johnson (she/her) is an Assistant Professor at MacEwan University and a PhD student at the Faculty of Native Studies at the University of Alberta. She is a member of the Beaver First Nation. Johnson’s research focuses on relationality through beadwork, burlesque, and sexual/reproductive justice. When she is not working on her academic pursuits, she is a busy mom of three. Johnson is also a published creative writer and singer/songwriter who is always happy to jam and make sweet, sweet music! As a long-time Tipi Confessions performer and collaborator, Brittany joined as co-producer in 2022, and also has been assisting the Indigenous Feminist Collective since 2020.

Photo Credit: Red Socks Photography

Kim TallBear is Canada Research Chair in Indigenous Peoples, Technoscience, and Society, Faculty of Native Studies, University of Alberta. Building on lessons learned about how settler states engage in biological colonialism, Dr. TallBear also studies the colonization of Indigenous sexuality. She combines anthropological approaches with community-based research, arts-based research, and performance, including co-founding Tipi Confessions. Dr. TallBear is a citizen of the Sisseton-Wahpeton Oyate in South Dakota, USA. You can read her latest Substack posts at Unsettle, where she writes on Indigenous affairs, cultural politics and (de)colonization. 

Photo Credit: Steinhauer Photography

Savage Bear is a citizen of the Montreal Lake Cree Nation. She is the Director for the McMaster Indigenous Research Institute (MIRI), an Assistant Professor within the Indigenous Studies Department, and also the National Director of Walls to Bridges; an education program bringing post-secondary education to incarcerated and formerly incarcerated folks. Prior to arriving at McMaster in 2021, Bear worked at the University of Alberta, where she was the Director of the Indigenous Women & Youth Resilience Project and the academic lead on ‘Indigenous Canada.' An accomplished academic, Bear has made significant contributions to Indigenous scholarship and the national Indigenous education landscape since earning her PhD from the University of Alberta in 2016. Her dissertation, ‘Power in My Blood: Corporeal Sovereignty through the Praxis of an Indigenous Eroticanalysis’ won the highly coveted Governor General Gold Medal. In 2023 Bear was appointed to the Order of Canada for her exemplary achievement and positive impacts for transformative change in the areas of Indigenous rights, prison education, and academic leadership.