Citizen Spotlight: Tracy Bradley
Posted on: May 29, 2026
Tracy Bradley (She/They) is a 2S multi-disciplinary artist, birth worker, and entrepreneur. They are of Cree-Métis and European descent with membership in The Métis Nation within Alberta. Tracy was born and raised in Edmonton, and her Scottish Métis family roots stem from Turtle Mountain, St. Paul des Métis, and Red River Settlements.
Their practice involves community building, investigation of traditional materials in contemporary styles, creating and supporting learning opportunities, and sharing of traditional skills.
Two of their primary focuses are to create Indigenous urban spaces and explore Métis artistic methods in our present time. Each day, they hold space for their community of Indigenous, 2SLGBTQ+, and BIPOC people. Tracy is a member of the Métis Nation within Alberta, Canada Council for the Arts, Indigenous Artists Market Collective, Edmonton Two Spirit Society, and Kihew Awasis Wakamik Society.
They have been taught by relatives such as their mother, Janice Simpson, the late Roxanne Tootoosis, Elder Ekti Margaret Cardinal, Noella Steinhauer, and many others. “Roxanne Tootoosis was a great influence in my life,” says Tracy, “both as a person who holds space for Two-Spirit people like myself, and for, you know, the work she did in the community.”
Tracy’s Art
Their sewing machine is their happy place. They work primarily in textiles, hides, beads, sculpted wool, natural stones, fur, birch bark, acrylic, watercolour, ink, and oils.
“I started off just kind of playing,” says Tracy, who would use leftover fabric and thrifted items to upcycle and divert materials from the landfill. Tracy then developed additional skills at Lunch and Learns with Dr. Lana Whiskeyjack. They share some of the techniques they learnt there, like beading rosettes, in their own classes now.
“I consider myself, like a novice artist. And even with beadwork, there’s so much to learn,” they say. That’s why one of their goals in the next few years is to apprentice with other artists to deepen their skills. “There’s something to learn from everybody,” they say.
Tracy Bradley’s Businesses
Tracy is the owner of Grow Centre, Nikawiy Beads, and The QUILTBAG, an all Indigenous and 2SLGBTQ+ community space operating on Whyte Avenue since 2010.
Through the Grow Centre, Tracy makes space for their community to learn through workshops they, or other facilitators, lead. “I think for me, people inviting me into those spaces, like that is what encouraged me to keep going and to keep exploring and to become proud and more rooted in my Métis identity.
Roxanne Tootoosis would always lead their classes by starting with a ceremony through a smudge, a sharing circle, and a story of how they came to be guided to teach ribbon skirt making or dressmaking. “And so, I try to honour that with every class that we do here and start in that good way,” says Tracy, “with either a song or bring(ing) somebody in for a prayer or the teaching.”
Elder Etki Margaret Cardinal, for example, does workshops over the winter months. “The vibe or the kind of energy that kind of comes up is like a bunch of aunties sitting around the kitchen table, beading or sewing, and laughing, and sharing food and stories.”
On National Ribbon Skirt Day, January 4, Tracy shared on their Instagram, @growcentreclasses, that in 2025, they helped with or taught people to make a total of 160 ribbon skirts.
“On the QUILTBAG side, we have over 100 different Queer, Trans, and BIPOC artists that contribute to the shop,” says Tracy. While supporting these artists, the QUILTBAG also has its Trans Community Fund, which provides free gender affirming items from the store to low-income Trans, Non-Binary, and Two-Spirit peoples.
Tracy Bradley’s Involvement in Decolonizing Birth Work
Tracy has been a birth worker and aunty-mentor with Kihew Awasis Wakamik Society since its beginnings, helping in various capacities to decolonize birth work, like training cohorts of midwives and facilitating workshops. This ongoing work has been a beautiful experience for Tracy, who retired from attending births in 2024 but is still involved by supporting the mentorship.
One of the highlights for them is the project Kistehitah kimeskanām, or Honour Your Journey/ Honour Your Road. Tracy says, “That project came up out of the first 250 graves found at Kamloops (residential school). One of my sisters had a dream, more a vision, about a path lined with baby moccasins and moss bags and ribbon skirts. And at the end of the path, there was a white lodge that was glowing from within.” The project involves 10 workshops per year on making baby moccasins, moss bags, and star blankets to gift to new babies today, while honouring the children sent to residential schools.
Just a couple of weeks after the vision, one of their funding partners came to them with a new funding stream for Indigenous learners. “It was just such perfect timing,” says Tracy, who helped to secure the funding with an oral grant proposal. “Just to be able to do that proposal orally, which felt more like a traditional way of doing things, was really meaningful.” When they asked for one year of funding for ten classes, they received three years of funding for 30 classes.
In that first year, two Kohkoms joined as Knowledge Keepers in the beading classes Tracy was teaching. Tracy explains, “Both of them said that due to the interruption of residential schools, they didn’t have an opportunity to learn those skills when they were young. And it never stuck before then and now… I think because we did things in that good way, they were able to learn and retain what they learned. So that’s one of my greatest points and pride: teaching those Kohkoms how to how to bead when, you know, they would have learned those during their coming-of-age ceremonies when they were young but didn’t because of residential school.”
In the second year, Kistehitah kimeskanām began workshops for moss bags and in the third year, star blankets for the babies’ welcoming ceremony when they’re born.
At the time of writing, they were in their fourth year of providing ten workshops per year and were approved for the fifth year. “And then this year, we started doing moccasins for those that have relatives journeying back to the spirit world.”