Nakoda youth interning with Chiniki and Wesley human resource development based in Morley are learning to harness their ancestral entrepreneurship skills in modern business. Thirteen students in the Stoney Administration summer program were given the opportunity to delve into entrepreneurship for a week, with the help of Business Link Alberta and Community Futures Treaty 7, as part of a goal to gain well-rounded business training over the summer. Holly Atjecoutay, an Indigenous business facilitator with Business Link Alberta, said while they went over the usual ins and outs of the trade with the students, such as advertising, marketing and how to do a SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats) analysis, there was also an Aboriginal teaching component to it. “We went through the traditional entrepreneurial endeavours of Indigenous peoples before colonialism. We were all entrepreneurs to begin with before that time,” explained Atjecoutay. “We didn’t have any monetary means. We didn’t have paper money or gold or silver or anything like that. Everything was done on a trade basis,” she said. “Everyone in the community had their role whether they were warriors and hunting or a lot of women were tanning hides or cooking so everyone had their own role in society and not everyone could do everything ... Everyone had that entrepreneurial spirit beforehand and we still have it today.” However, students were also taught what goes into starting a business in an Indigenous community, which comes with its own unique challenges. The rule for setting up a business on a First Nation reserve is that there are no concrete rules. “It depends nation to nation, council to council, leadership to leadership. Every single nation is different,” said Rena Laboucan, business development assistant at Community Futures Treaty 7. “Each one sets up their own guidelines and then any entrepreneur trying to run a business in that nation needs to follow those guidelines.” Laboucan said she hoped students learned how they could fill gaps in services or products within their own community. “I think showing them that they don’t have to rely on outside sources,” Laboucan said. “That’s something we really try to push, like what do you need here on the nation? Because the services are different here on the nation than if they were to go to Calgary or wherever, they really had to focus on what they felt could benefit here on the nation.” Atjecoutay said the program within the Chiniki Wesley HR summer camp was the first of its kind, but the dedication of the students will likely prompt a return of the program next year. “We had a few superstars in this group that just were very passionate and wanted to be here, were on time, they only took a half hour lunch because they wanted to finish their project, they wanted to work on it, they understood deadlines,” she said. Filling up the foyer of the Stoney Community gym on July 27 for the fair were tables of branded hats, T-shirts, artwork and baked goods. Adam Poucette, 18, worked on his group’s brand called Cloud T-shirt, which were shirts hand painted with a “YP” and feathers, a symbol that holds cultural significance. “It means Yethka pride,” he explained, which translates to ‘Native’ pride. “The feathers come from the eagle, our grandfather the eagle.” “What we created on the shirts is how we really see the land, our people. The idea of the shirt is for the people who have our culture. They know what the shirt means, they know what it stands for.” Another group created a baking company, a business that doesn’t yet exist in Morley while a group of painters sold custom artwork.
