Erin Brillon
Haida · Laana Ts'aadas Eagle Clan, Skidegate · Kalga Jaad
Founder of Totem Design House, Erin is the vision behind the brand, designing its clothing, jewelry and regalia, developing its wellness collections, and creating everything from the products, packaging and designing the studio and gallery that brings it all together
The story behind Totem Design House
It started it with two t-shirts
Erin Brillon is Haida, of the Laana Ts’aadas Eagle Clan of Skidegate, with Cree ancestry. She carries the name Kalga Jaad and is the eldest granddaughter of the late matriarch Evelyn Crosby.
Erin grew up immersed in the Northwest Coast art world, surrounded by some of its most accomplished artists. After more than a decade working in Indigenous cultural and wellness programming, including eight years coordinating residential school healing workshops, she founded Totem Design House in 2015.
Today, Erin is the creative force behind much of Totem Design House, designing clothing, jewelry and regalia and developing its wellness collections.
She founded it
Totem Design House started in 2015 with two t-shirts. It's now a studio, gallery and boutique in the Comox Valley, and 10% of annual profits go to Copper Legacy.
She formulates it
The candles, teas, roll-ons and sprays are developed in-house, from decades of Erin's own research into plants, traditional medicine and essential oils.
She designs and makes it
Clothing, jewelry and regalia — drawn by her and produced in K'omoks.
Erin's work
CREATING A LEGACY
Ten percent of annual profits go to Copper Legacy Indigenous Empowerment Society, the non-profit Erin founded in 2019 to continue supporting grass-roots Indigenous empowerment programs.