Ecko Aleck

Sacred Matriarch Productions
-Founder and Artist-

Ecko was born into the Nlaka’pamux Nation and raised with the shishalh nation, she now lives, works and plays on the traditional territories of the Pentlatch, Snaw-Naw-As and Snuneymuxw First Nations.

Sacred Matriarch Productions partners with Indigenous organizations to serve grassroots youth and community projects; offering ancestral knowledge woven into sacred space facilitation and digital media & performance storytelling. Services are offered through 3 pillars: Facilitation (workshops & program design/development/launch), Production (music, sound, film) and Performance (hip-hop, spoken word, singing).

Ecko is a sparkly, star-shape that doesn’t fit the box and is a lover of pandas and pockets.

Julie Bull

projX Consulting Collective
-Founder and CEO-

Dr. Julie Bull (NunatuKavut Inuk) is an award-winning interdisciplinary researcher, ethicist, entrepreneur, educator, poet, and spoken-word artist from Happy-Valley-Goose Bay, NL. They currently lives and works as a visitor on Epekwitk (Prince Edward Island), the ancestral and contemporary unceded land of Miꞌkmaꞌki, where they leads the projX Consulting Collective.

projX Consulting Collective is an Indigenous owned and operated business that promotes and practices ethical and responsible research with Indigenous Peoples by supporting and emphasizing rights-based approaches that can be exerted within the current research regulatory system.  We deliver customized research ethics training and education (virtually and in-person) to Indigenous communities, Research Ethics Boards, researchers, and students. 

Julie is a winter enthusiast who loves ice fishing and snow-shoeing!

Brenda Dragon

Aurora Heat
-President-

Brenda Dragon is a Northern entrepreneur of Dënesųłiné and French Canadian roots. Inspired by her family heritage and traditions, she founded her business in her childhood home, Fort Smith, Northwest Territories. She enjoys working with young people, both her son and niece are key to the success of Aurora Heat. 

With a passion for the environment, Brenda Dragon designs, manufactures, markets and distributes new-to-market fur warmers, using sheared beaver. Aurora Heat offers sustainable products while supporting wild fur harvesting for Northern peoples.  Goals are to expand further into new channels - online, retail and corporate.

Fun Fact:  Brenda has had four distinct careers. The first was as an Ophthalmic Technician, licenced to provide primary eye care in the North.  For ten years, as an Eye Tech, she travelled to all 58 communities in the Northwest Territories and what is now, Nunavut. 

Sage Lacerte

The Sage Initiative (Sus Loo Ltd.)

Sage Lacerte is a Carrier woman from the Lake Babine Nation and a graduate from the University of Victoria where she focused on Gender and Indigenous Studies. Since 2017, Sage has stood as the National Youth Ambassador of the Moose Hide Campaign contributing to their vision of ending violence towards women and children in Canada by focusing on solution-based actions in K-12 and post-secondary institutions. Looking towards the future she developed the Sage Initiative, an impact investment collective for young Indigenous womxn to gain investment literacy and generate a circular Indigenous economy led by matriarchs.

Jasmine Plummer

The Sahtú Youth Network
-Coordinator-

Jasmine is a Sahtú beneficiary from Tlegohli (where the oil comes from, Norman Wells ). She has grown up in the Sahtú most of her life and stays connected to her culture though her family and as a Shúhta Ne K’édíke (keeper’s of the mountain land). She a strong young woman, who wants to help the youth in her surrounding communities to gain better relationships with themselves in a heathy way and a better connection to the land.

The Sahtú Youth Network is a group of Sahtú youth beneficiaries (ages 18-30) who have come together to build a stronger relationship between the communities and with the land. The goal of this is to help the youth in the Sahtú build a strong leadership program, to provide a supportive space for themselves and to represent the youth in decision-making forums.

A fun fact: snowshoeing with my dog Natla (means ‘fast’ in my language) is my favorite winter activity.

Margo Tamez

Sqil'wx Apne Society
-Executive Director-

I am an enrolled Lipan Apache Band of Texas, a Ndé-Dene community with Creation and Migration Stories connecting us to Dene peoples of MacKenzie River, Great Bear Lake, and Great Slave Lake. I am a mother of five, an organizer, Co-Founder Lipan Apache Women Defense, Executive Director of Sqilxw Apna Society, and an Associate Professor at UBC, Okanagan. I live in N’sis’ooloxw village, Nk’mlpks, on Okanagan Indian Band Reserve, near Vernon, BC with my partner and children. 

Our service and philosophy centers Indigenous ways of knowing, doing, and being to strengthen Sqilxw and Ndé-Dene participation and capacity in green economies and sustainability from an Indigenous kinship-nest model approach. Through kinship mentoring systems and critical anti-racism, anti-misogyny, and queer lenses, we co-mentor and support Indigenous women and Two Spirit folx’ entrepreneurial sensibilities toward collectivizing old-growth forest restoration throughout N’sis’ooloxw Creek, which revitalizes extended family cooperation approaches to develop local economies invested in re-energizing local Indigenous foods, architecture, arts, and home-based economies involved).

A fun fact: High-altitude blue-bonnet meadows make me giddy; lying down on soft grass on a hot summer day watching the clouds migrate by… is the best!

Lynn-Marie Angus

Sisters Sage
-Owner-

Lynn-Marie Angus is from the Gitxaala, Nisga’a, Cree, and Metis Nations, and is the Owner of Sisters Sage, an Indigenous Wellness Brand in New Westminster BC. Sisters Sage creates modern self care and wellness products using traditional and cultural knowledge.

Lynn-Marie has bootstrapped her business to be one that is fast gaining recognition in a highly competitive field. She uses her platform to inspire and motivate other Indigenous women and youth to define their own financial futures through business.

Fun Fact: Lynn-Marie Angus is the first ever National Pow Wow Pitch competition winner!

Larissa Crawford

Future Ancestors Services Inc.
-Founder and Managing Director-

Larissa is a restorative circle keeper, published Indigenous and anti-racism researcher, award-winning ribbon skirt artist, and proudly passes on Métis and Jamaican ancestry to her daughter, Zyra. She is the Founder of Future Ancestors Services, a youth-led professional services social enterprise that advances equity and climate justice through lenses of ancestral accountability and anti-racism. Under Larissa's leadership and since their launch in April 2020, the organization has mobilized +$20K in donations for anti-racist and climate justice initiatives. Larissa and her team seek to increase their clients' capacity to honour people and Planet through their minds, work, and spaces, and do so while leveraging decolonized and Indigenized approaches to 'doing business.' Among their 100 diverse clients are small youth-led collectives and non-profits; Canada's most influential law firms and publishing houses; and the highest offices of Canadian government.

Larissa graduated from York University with a Bachelor of Arts in International Development and Communication Studies in June 2018, Summa Cum Laude, with 2-year-old Zyra on her hip. After experiences such as starting a library in Accra, Ghana, studying international law and volunteering in Istanbul, Turkey, and representing her university at several global United Nations events, Larissa redirected her efforts to home. She led several anti-racism and Indigenous research initiatives at the university, and shortly after brought this experience to Ontario’s Ministry of Energy and Ontario’s Anti-Racism Directorate as a policy advisor; the 2018 G7 as an expert advisor and youth delegate; and many of her related volunteer roles. Larissa's experience has led to her specializations in raced-based data collection, Indigenous and anti-racism research, accessibility, restorative circle keeping, restorative practice and conflict resolution, climate justice, and public policy.

Through programs such as the CohortX Climate Justice, the Action Canada, and the Youth Climate Lab FutureXChange fellowships, and now the FIreweed Fellowship, Larissa continues her learning of Northern Indigenous climate knowledge, climate policy, anti-racism opportunities in environmentalism, and doing business with traditional and decolonized approaches.

Larissa is currently based in Calgary, the Traditional Territory of Blackfoot Confederacy (Siksika, Kainai, Piikani Nations), the Tsuut’ina, the Îyâxe (Stoney) Nakoda Nations, and traditional homeland of the Métis Nation, Region 3.

Devon Fiddler

SheNative Goods Inc.
-CEO and Chief Changemaker-

Devon Fiddler is a Cree Mother of two, from the Waterhen Lake First Nation, SK. Devon has a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Aboriginal Public Administration from the University of Saskatchewan, and has completed numerous leadership, economic development, entrepreneurship and business certificate programs in the last nine years.

SheNative creates inspiring goods from leather bags to apparel with a focus on educating about issues faced by Indigenous women. Our mission is to instil inner strength, and unwavering confidence in women by utilizing teachings from our Indigenous ancestors with respect to all diverse Nations.

She played hockey when she was a teenager. It wasn’t really her thing. 

Adrienne Larocque

Kihew ad Rose
-Owner-

Adrienne Larocque is a Nehiyaw Iskwew (Plains Cree woman) from Maskwacis, Alberta in Treaty 6. She resides on the traditional and unceded territories of the Musqueam, Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh Nations (Vancouver). She is on a lifelong journey of reclaiming her culture and beadwork is central to this journey.

Kihew and Rose features contemporary beaded jewellery and other goods that range from every day earrings for the young professional to special occasion pieces. We want people to feel proud.

Adrienne is a proud Auntie and is learning to play the ukulele. 

Nicole Mclaren

Raven Reads
-Founder-

Nicole McLaren is an award-winning entrepreneur and accomplished economic development professional of Métis, Cree and European heritage with an extensive career in Canada’s resource industry. Nicole is a member of the Métis Nation and her family comes from northern

Saskatchewan. An entrepreneur at heart, Nicole’s steady search for market opportunities, combined with her enterprising Indigenous roots, led her to launch Raven Reads.

Raven Reads is a direct to consumer subscription box, wholesale gift line and publishing house. Delivering to over 1,000 subscribers around the world every three months, Raven Reads is the only subscription box with a social purpose that provides quality content promoting positive relationships between Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples.

A fun fact: I am a huge heavy metal fan and I can only play Simon and Garfunkel on the piano.

Nikki Sanchez

Decolonize Together
-Founder and Director-

Pialli! Nikki is a community organizer, media maker, decolonial educator, author, wilderness guide, activist, and academic, She is Pipil/Maya on her father's side and Irish/Scottish Settler Canadian on her mother's side. Her life has been split between her father's territories in Central America and Coast Salish and Nuu-chah-nulth territories on what is now known as Vancouver Island. Nikki’s life work has been dedicated to uniting nations across the Americas towards Indigenous solidarity, anti-racism, cultural revitalization, and land protection.

Decolonize Together is a collective of Indigenous and BIPOC womxn who provide decolonial, antiracism, and anti-oppression education and consultation. We offer workshops. curriculum creation, program development, cultural safety in the workplace training, trauma-informed practices, decolonial coaching, and HR support for organizations of every size and expertise who are committed to creating equitable innovation in their respective fields and wish to create culturally inclusive services.

A fun fact: I know how to train eagles to eat out of my hand.

Mélanie Bernard & Trisha Pitura

MINI TIPI
-CoFounders-

Trisha Pitura is originally from Sudbury, Ontario and is a member of Nipissing First Nation.  She spent all her summers in Dokis First Nation and currently resides in Gatineau, Québec with her three children and husband.  Mélanie Bernard was born and raised in Quebec City now residing in Gatineau with her family.  She is a teacher by profession, and stayed home to raise her two girls.  Trisha and Mélanie met at a community program for their children, became mommy friends and created a brand that woman fell in love with.

MINI TIPI is a Canadian women-owned company founded in 2016 that creates small batch quality goods for your home and family.  Their designs are inspired not only by their lifestyles, but also by their proud Canadian and Indigenous heritage to develop a truly unique line of goods that are as practical and useful as they are stylish and beautifully made.

Collaborating with Indigenous artists has allowed MINI TIPI to set themselves apart supporting artists and celebrating culture.  All of their products such as their blankets, women's shawls, childrens ponchos and baby products are designed, cut and sewn in Québec.  It is extremely important to MINI TIPI to give back to the community through donations to local food banks and Indigenous women crisis centres, and sharing products to those in need.

Trisha has a passion for textiles and creating unique products that can be used in one's everyday adventures, her role is to manage production and product design. A fun little fact about Trisha is she loves spending her time near the water and loves using her dyson! Mélanie has a passion for knowledge and the business side of the brand, her role is to manage sales, marketing, e-commerce platforms and shipping.  A fun little fact about Mélanie is she is very chatty and loves to travel.

Melissa Daniels

Naidie Nezu
-Creator-

Naidie Nezu means 'Good Medicine' in the Dene language. The concept of 'good medicine' and naidie nezu has existed since time immemorial and being as such, Melissa is mindful not to say she is a founder in the traditional sense but rather a creator of sorts.

Melissa is a Dënesųłiné ts’ékui (woman) & member of the Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation (Treaty 8). She grew up on her northern homelands, Denendeh, which is where she currently resides. Melissa holds a Bachelors of Science in Nursing as well as Juris Doctorate. Prior to becoming an entrepreneur, Melissa worked in public health & pediatrics as a nurse & represented her own First Nation as legal counsel.

Naidie Nezu designs personal care products with power of Indigenous plants for people who are inspired by nature + want to live more natural lives. Naidie Nezu's principled approach to business supports a multitude of grassroots initiatives including sustainable sourcing, Indigenous harvesting techniques, & giving 10% of its proceeds back to Indigenous land based initiatives and our primary customer/market are those who want to use thier power as consumers to be agents for positive change in the world.

Melissa is a third generation Indigenous nurse and her youngest sister is Indigenous YouTube ASMR extraordinaire, Honey Tingles.

Joella Hogan

Yukon Soap Company
-Founder-

Loving life in the heart of the Yukon. I am from Northern Tutchone and come from a long line of strong, vibrant, Indigenous women. My matriarchs are teachers, healers, bush women, social advocates, and cultural leaders. They’ve taught me how to make things happen. Through my line of hand-crafted soaps, I work to embody elements of each of the special talents shared by my family and community.

When I moved to Mayo, to live on my traditional territory I envisioned reconnecting with my community, elders, land, and language. Happily, I’ve been able to do all of that through the Yukon Soaps Company, by using local plants in my formulations, employing local youth, using Na-cho Nyak Dun beadwork and plant knowledge, and by sprinkling in Northern Tutchone language wherever I can.

It was when I came home to find local children had left baskets full of wild rose petals for my soaps that I knew I had made the right choice. I am also a professional heritage worker, who continues to bring Northern Tutchone culture and heritage to the forefront of life in the central Yukon. As an active advocate for my First Nation and a dedicated community builder, I stay busy with the Stewart Valley Farmers market, yoga, advocacy work, and kick sledding around beautiful Mayo, Yukon.

Joleen Mitton

All My Relations LTD & Indigenous Fashion Week
-Owner and Operator-

My name is Joleen Mitton, I'm néhiyaw from Alberta. Spanning almost two decades, my modelling career has landed me spots in campaigns for the likes of Kenzo, Clinique, and Vivienne Westwood, on countless runways in Asia, and in print ads for everything from hightech air conditioners to Hello Kitty paraphernalia.

Owner/Operator of All My Relations LTD and Vancouver Indigenous Fashion Week that produces Indigenous Fashion shows with clothing designed by Indigenous Designers and worn by models of First Nation, Métis and Inuit descent.

A fun fact: I’ve had Mick Jagger kiss my hand and say my name in Hong Kong during SARS..I play on an Indigenous basketball team.

Celeste Smith

Ga Gitigemi Gamik
(We Will Plant Lodge)
-Director-

Celeste (she/her) is the Director of Ga Gitigemi Gamik (We Will Plant Lodge). Celeste is from the Wolf Clan, and is Oneida from Six Nations Territory. Celeste is a seed steward, traditional agriculturalist and former professor of Traditional Ecological Knowledge at Niagara College.

Ga Gitigemi Gamik (We Will Plant Lodge) is envisioned as an ecological centre on a permanent Indigenous stewarded site, where women and 2SLGBTTQQIA+ persons can work on the land together in a 12 week Immersion program that will help them (RE)learn ancestral agricultural methods lost to colonization. We will use Traditional Indigenous Ecological Knowledge and ancestral farming methods to rebuild resiliency in the soil and in ourselves.

As an intergenerational trauma survivor, she has made it her life's mission to help women rebuild their connections to the land and their lifeways.

The Clan Mothers Healing Village

In 2015, a collective of Indigenous women came together to solve the ongoing systemic, multi-generational trauma in their communities. With decades of experience working with thousands of women and girls, this group of Clan Mothers set out to build a village to create healing through collaboration and understanding.

Clan Mothers has designed a contemporary, sustainable Healing Village governed by a Grandmother council. Our Healing Village will provide mid-term to long-term support to women who have been victims of multigenerational systemic trauma, sexual violence, sexual exploitation, and human trafficking to help them begin their healing journey.

Angela DeMontigny

Young Native Fashion Inc.
-President, Founder and Creative Director-

Angela DeMontigny is an award winning, internationally renowned, fashion designer of Cree/Métis heritage. DeMontigny grew up in North Vancouver and White Rock, BC, although her family roots are in Manitoba, Saskatchewan and North Dakota. As the President, Founder and Creative Director of Young Native Fashion Inc., Angela is responsible for the design, production, sourcing, marketing and sales of multiple fashion and lifestyle product lines. She also designed and opened a new, beautiful, flagship boutique/gallery on trendy James St. North in downtown Hamilton in 2014. Her international clientele came from all over for her custom-fit, luxury fashion collections, accessories, jewelry and natural, hand poured soy candle collection called LODGE.

DeMontigny has shown her work around the world, spoken as an advocate for Indigenous designers and artisans and has become a mentor and workshop facilitator to burgeoning, Indigenous women and youth entrepreneurs throughout Canada and the Caribbean.

She is now focusing on building her online, Indigenous health/wellness business featuring her popular, LODGE soy candle line as well as embarking on new, public art projects she has designed. A fitness and health enthusiast and lover of dance,

A fun fact: Angela has taught Zumba for eight years.

Leigh Joseph

Sḵwálwen Botanicals
-Founder-

Leigh Joseph (ancestral name Styawat), is an ethnobotanist, researcher and entrepreneur from the Squamish First Nation. She contributes to cultural knowledge renewal in connection to traditional plant foods and medicines.

As founder of Sḵwálwen Botanicals, Leigh brings together Indigenous science and self-care rituals, creating skincare experiences grounded in the natural world. Sḵwálwen (skwall-win) translates roughly to “heart” or “essence of being” in the Squamish language. This name honours the inspiration behind the business: building connections to the land through working with plants in a way that feeds one’s heart and spirit.

Sḵwálwen has been featured in Elle Canada, Flare, Chatelaine, HuffPost and enRoute Magazine, and is an awardee of the 2020 Indigenous Business of the Year.

Heather Morigeau

Foodscape
-Founder-

Heather Morigeau is Mixed Metis with grandmothers from the Metis, Ktunaxa and Cree Nations, as well as British, Irish and German heritage.  Originally born in Red Deer, she currently is an uninvited guest on the Blackfoot Confederacy of Treaty 7, Mokinisi, colonially known as Calgary, Alberta. She identifies as indigi-queer and Two Spirted woman (she/they).

Heather is a social entrepreneur, artist, and activist. She founded the co-operative FoodScape Calgary which focuses on creating landscapes and gardens guided by Indigenous land care ethics. This past summer FoodScape Calgary installed the first Sacred Medicine Garden at Calgary John Howard Society, it is a living sculpture designed to celebrate Indigenous culture while providing free and open access to Sacred Medicines used in cultural healing.

As an artist, Heather is developing a series of contemporary art that fuses the traditional artform of pine needle weaving from the Ktunaxa Nation, with modern techniques such as laser cutting and 3D printing.

Rebeka Tabobondung

MUSKRAT Magazine
-Founder and Editor in Chief-

Media and story creator Rebeka Tabobondung is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of MUSKRATMagazine.com a leading online Indigenous arts and culture magazine that strives to honour, investigate, and disseminate traditional knowledges in ways that inspire their reclamation.

Working alongside ReZ 91.3 FM in 2015, Rebeka co-founded the Gchi Dewin Indigenous Storytellers Festival in Wasauksing First Nation where she is a member. Rebeka is also a filmmaker, writer, poet, and Indigenous knowledge and oral history researcher. She is a former Research Associate with The Well Living House, an Indigenous Action Research Centre based at St. Michael’s Hospital in Toronto specializing in community based research with over twenty years of experience in community engagement and project management within diverse Indigenous communities.

Rebeka’s latest research and film work documents traditional birth knowledge. Her short doc, Spirit of Birth explores Indigenous birth and the Toronto Birth Centre is available for viewing on MUSKRAT Magazine.

Kim Wheatley

Seeds for Eco Communities

She is a multi-award winning cultural consultant for over three decades, who utilizes traditional and ceremonial knowledge to educate. Her commitment to inserting Indigenous wisdom, values and practices is punctuated with her storytelling, hand drumming/singing and diverse knowledge base. Kim has appeared on TV, radio, news, articles and authored four books.

Kim offers keynotes, workshops, traditional teachings & ceremonies connected to the historic and contemporary realties of Indigenous people. She has travelled locally, nationally and internationally speaking to all walks of life including organizations, corporations, educational institutions (public/private/post secondary), cultural groups, environmental groups and government agencies.

A fun fact: Kim is a black belt in Tae Kwon Do and has won a gold and bronze at NAIG 2002