Cienan Muir

Cienan Muir is a Yorta Yorta/Ngarrindjeri man who grew up around Melbourne, Echuca and Shepparton under two well-known family names (Muir and Nicholls).

Cienan was a Senior Project Officer at the Koorie Youth Council an advocacy body for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander young people within Victoria.  He managed and organised many youth orientated events such as the annual Koorie Youth Summit and ‘Blackout’ a smaller regional events for young people.  These act as feedback loops for young people to talk through what they need within their communities.

In 2018 Cienan started a business called ‘IndigiNerd’. The outline of this is quite simple, but the ripples and impact it can achieve are great.

IndigiNerd works to provide events, big or small, for popular culture enthusiasts, video gamers or comic book readers. The aim of this small step is to give the portion of the community who frequent these arenas, a platform and a network to meet likeminded people who are interested in the same things. In the very same arena, this space would encourage an organic conversation around culture, healing and the cultural loads that so many young people experience. It is safe spaces such as this that will truly make a meaningful difference in a young person’s eyes.

“In creating safe spaces we encourage healing, growth and creativity.”

Cienan has been involved in the world of pop culture since 2010 sitting on numerous panels, hosting some and giving a few talks on his work with cosplay.  In doing so, he talks about the role representation plays within various forms of media and the power narrative, he relates this to the concept of SHAME and the unwanted existence it has within the Indigenous community.  Believing that it must be dismantled.