Patricia Massy, a Nêhiyaw-Métis woman, is the founder and owner of Massy Books, a bookstore in Vancouver’s Chinatown neighbourhood, and the co-founder of Indigenous Brilliance, a collective empowering Indigenous women, trans, queer, and two-spirit storytellers. Massy Books was British Columbia’s first registered living-wage bookstore and prioritizes Indigenous narratives and histories. As a supporter of the arts, Massy has spent the past eight years facilitating community events for underrepresented artists and writers. Her store has donated to various charities and initiatives, including providing legal fee support for Indigenous nations and raising over $70,000 for families in Gaza.
Motivation I’ve always been a big reader and come from a family of big readers. Around 2012, I went to an Indigenous Ceremony and had a vision to open up a bookstore. I wanted to surround myself with stories, healing and narratives. I wasn’t immersed in my culture growing up, and so I opened my shop with the intention of sharing the stories that were stolen from us. I wanted to open up a store to have a space for stories I didn’t typically see in other bookstores.
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Advocacy I don’t shy away from being vocal on issues. We have a platform. We have a responsibility to speak out and participate in the things that matter. Whether it’s about land defence in Canada, Palestine, trans rights or the environment — we do everything we can. We’ve faced a lot of threats of violence and hostility for having that position. Being in those spaces is not unfamiliar to me. It’s not something that scares me.
Impact I’ve seen so many young authors present their work at the Indigenous Brilliance reading series — a project co-facilitated with Room magazine that supports underrepresented writers — and go on to publish books. The series has created a space and a platform for them to tell their stories, and other people see their brilliance.
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This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
CORRECTION: A previous version of this story stated that Patricia Massy was the co-founder of Room magazine. She is the co-founder of Indigenous Brilliance. This version has been corrected.
Madeline Liao was a Broadview intern.
This story first appeared in Broadview’s April/May 2025 issue with the title “Patricia Massy.”
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