Twenty contestants from across the country are gearing up to participate in the third annual Miss Indigenous Canada competition, taking place on Six Nations of the Grand River from Monday, July 20, through Friday, July 24, 2026.
Aleria McKay, Founder and Director of Miss Indigenous Canada, described the competition as a leadership development and ambassador program geared towards First Nations, Métis and Inuit women and Two-Spirit people between the ages of 18 and 30.
“We really focus on building community and building the sort of skills participants need to be able to go into the communities and make a difference,” she said. “We’re really not a beauty pageant, and we’re trying to move away from that, so we’ve changed a lot of the language around how we’re structured. We now call it a program instead of a pageant because there were a lot of misunderstandings about what we do, what we offer and what our goals are. We’re not focused on any sort of external beauty standard; we’re more focused on character and leadership development.”
Having participated in pageants herself from the age of 11 to 21, McKay said she started the program in 2024 to offer something that focused on more than just your outward appearance.
“I had grown up doing pageants, and I gained a lot of valuable skills, like public speaking and networking, through that experience. So many different things from that time have really stayed with me and have benefitted me, and I wanted to start something that I didn’t necessarily have the chance to participate in,” she said. “I wanted to create a program that provided the same benefits as traditional pageants, but didn’t focus so much on the external things. It sounds cheesy, but I wanted something that focused on what’s on the inside and the skills I was able to develop.”
Throughout the week, participants will receive instructional training and experiential opportunities focused on community and personal leadership, public speaking, media engagement and interview skills, community engagement, professional conduct and networking, as well as grant writing.
They’ll also take part in different workshops, cultural tours, formal dinners and other various activities, while hearing from guest speakers throughout the duration.
“They don’t just come and do the competition; we really try to make it an enriching week for them, so we have a lot of different workshops and guest speakers lined up this year,” said McKay. “We’re also going to be taking them to places like the Woodland Cultural Centre, Toronto City Hall and the Royal Ontario Museum. There’s also a lot of local things we’ll take them to around Six Nations. We want to show them the community and take the opportunity to show them the Haudenosaunee culture because they’re coming to our territory, and we want to be good hosts.”
At the end of the week, participants will have the chance to put what they’ve learned to work, and compete for the title of Miss Indigenous Canada during the final showcase at the Sanderson Centre in Brantford.
“We’ll have the delegates presenting a cultural presentation in the first part of the show, and the second half is when we start to introduce the semi finalists and finalists,” McKay explained. “We’ll narrow it down to a top ten, and they’ll do a prepared statement which is a one minute speech on their top of choice. From there, a top five will be chosen and they’ll pick a question out of a bowl and answer it, and then we’ll crown our new Miss Indigenous Canada in the end.”
Tickets for the big, culminating event can be found on the Sanderson Centre website.
Now in its third year, McKay said she and the committee, made up entirely of volunteers, are dedicated to continue improving the program.
“Each year, we’re changing and getting better; some years we add things in and some years we take some things out,” she said. “This is a learning experience for me and the committee, and we want to try to make it the best it can be for our participants.”
With the big program getting underway in just a couple of weeks, McKay said she’s excited to welcome this year’s delegates and see the next generation of leaders step forward.
“I’ve learned so much from many incredible youth across this country and it gives me a lot of hope for the future because I see the hands that our communities are in,” said McKay. “I gave birth to my daughter this past year, and it’s been really exciting to know we have so many great Indigenous youth that she’ll be able to look up to as she grows up.”
Kimberly De Jong’s reporting is funded by the Canadian government through its Local Journalism Initiative.The funding allows her to report rural and agricultural stories from Blandford-Blenheim and Brant County. Reach her at kimberly.dejong@brantbeacon.ca.
