Meet the Founders of TIF.
Click on the images below to learn more about the founders behind The Indigenous Foundation.
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As co-founders of The Indigenous Foundation we are driven by a single goal; to do our part in spreading awareness on what we are passionate about. Our organization was founded in November 2020, to initiate change for the better. Our goal as part of TIF is to assist various Indigenous communities across Turtle Island overcome the negative stereotypes and boundaries placed on them through spreading awareness and sharing holistic perspectives from our team. Through our platform, we hope to uplift and amplify Indigenous voices, Indigenous advocates, and Indigenous stories. We want to raise awareness and encourage accountability when it comes to topics that are often overlooked. We want The Indigenous Foundation to be a community and platform where everyone can share their voices and can feel heard.
-Meera and Sena, Co-Founders of The Indigenous Foundation
Meera Baswan, Founder and Director
Sena Yenilmez, Founder and Director
The creation of TIF as an organization and our story:
When discussing what motivated us to start The Indigenous Foundation, we had different individual stories- but a common goal. In November 2020, we decided to both do research studies on Indigenous rights in ‘Canada.’ Meera wrote about the crisis of MMIWG, and police brutality against Indigenous women. Sena wrote about the lack of clean drinking water in Indigenous communities. Although we both had knowledge about these topics, when diving into the research aspect of this, we were able to learn so much more. We noticed that the topic of Indigenous rights is something that is not discussed often enough. In school textbooks, curriculums, history is often whitewashed, and completely leaves out the struggles Indigenous communities went, and still go through. After learning in more depth about these topics, we were compelled to do more and take action. Later that month, we decided to create our Instagram account, as a way to spread awareness and reach others.
We made our first post on November 30th, 2020. Since then, our account and organization has grown exponentially, and we are extremely grateful for the positive impact created through TIF, and for everyone who has followed along and support our content.
We’ve been able to get to know and work alongside incredibly talented fellow team members. We hope to only continue to spread awareness. Our ultimate goal as an organization is to register under non-profit status. We would like to give back toward Indigenous communities and directly support these communities, as well as continue to maintain our website and social media.