Indigenous-owned businesses thriving

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This article was published 04/07/2023 (852 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

In one room, software developers tinkered with an Ojibwa language app. Next door, a designer brainstormed Canada Day branding for The Forks.

Across the hall, pictures of the seven sacred teachings adorned a boardroom’s walls.

Three Indigenous-owned businesses operate in the rooms at 71A Burnett Ave.: IndigPro, a digital marketing agency; 1st Peoples Print Shop; and Mino Dawaa, a new venture to bolster Indigenous entrepreneurs.

Dwayne Bird, 42, began all three companies over the past three years.

“I like to think of it as creating an Indigenous… business ecosystem,” he said, sitting in his boardroom in June.

His companies have been growing — hence the move to the East Kildonan space. Bird recently held an open house to showcase the office.

The boardroom TV flashed projects IndigPro has tackled: first, Finding our North Star, The Forks’ latest Canada Day branding; then, an Engineering Geoscientists Manitoba campaign to promote engineering and geoscience careers to Indigenous youth.

“I believe industry is looking for groups… that can be that bridge to Indigenous communities,” Bird said. “We’re at a unique time right now, in terms of the Canadian landscape, and also in terms of that resurgence of Indigenous culture.”

The Forks was intentional in its Canada Day programming, and the elements going into it, said Zach Peters, The Forks’ communication manager.

“In terms of working with IndigPro, (it’s) because of that connection of what the history of The Forks and this land is,” Peters said, adding IndigPro captured the day’s essence in “a single graphic.”

Bird had a difficult time finding work early on. Now, he dreams about expanding his companies internationally.

“Being of brown skin, it was very hard, almost 12 years ago, trying to attain some of the jobs here in the city,” the Peguis First Nation member said, adding agencies would turn him down because he was Indigenous.

He’d graduated from college in 2010 with a digital multimedia technology background, following a brief career in broadcasting.

An internship led to a job with the Manitoba First Nations Education Resource Centre in which he created virtual high school courses for First Nation communities. Bird, however, wanted to break into marketing.

“I knew there was a space there for technical Indigenous creatives to make a mark for themselves,” Bird said. “I looked at myself as a trailblazer, as far as trying to break that ground.”

He had a background and perspective not common in the province’s communications spaces, he added.

For several years, Bird worked at a marketing company he co-founded, Modern Clan Marketing Communications.

He left and, in 2020, began his own firm — IndigPro. He launched with a laptop and $10,000; a month later, the pandemic hit.

Fast forward to June 2023: the boardroom Bird sits in is about the size of his start-up location, and instead of working by himself, he has 11 employees.

There seems to be “a lot (more) Indigenous inclusion,” Bird said.

In 2021, Ottawa mandated that federal departments use Indigenous businesses for a minimum five per cent of the total value of their contracts. Bird’s companies have worked with several branches, including the Canadian Armed Forces, he said.

IndigPro has created a mental health campaign for the Federation of Sovereign Indigenous Nations and materials regarding Child and Family Services for the Keewatin Tribal Council.

It’s been tapped by universities to go beyond marketing, creating Indigenous language apps.

“We understand the issues that we’re talking about,” Bird said. “We live those issues. We struggle with those issues, but we’ve also grown from those issues.”

Jordan Dysart is a software developer on IndigPro’s payroll. In June, the O-Pipon-Na-Piwin Cree Nation member was building an Ojibwe language app.

“The dream is to… get it out there and preserve (it),” Dysart said. “There’s kind of a disconnect (between generations), and everybody who’s currently in leadership sees that.”

“The vision is so clear,” added Abimbola Bello, IndigPro’s communications manager.

Bello, who’s from Nigeria, said staff members work together to “move the vision forward.”

For Bird, the vision includes lending a hand to the next Indigenous entrepreneurs.

As he grows IndigPro and 1st Peoples Print Shop, a company creating car wraps and wall décor, among other things, he’s building Mino Dawaa, a hub for fledgling Indigenous businesspeople.

“I’m hoping to create space for other Indigenous entrepreneurs, to create economic prosperity that translates into their own personal well-being,” Bird said. “It is a tough route, but… it can provide a very fulfilling life.”

Mino Dawaa members take workshops, and get a fixed address at Peguis First Nation’s urban reserve, discounts on services from Bird’s other businesses and assistance on scoring government contracts.

Mino Dawaa’s going rate for receptionist services to members is $50 a week; an outgoing fax costs a business $1.50.

“Indigenous entrepreneurs are going to be pivotal players in Canada’s future,” Bird said.

He highlighted upcoming urban reserves, including Treaty One First Nation’s plans for the former Kapyong Barracks. Bird has seen around five Indigenous entrepreneurs monthly through Mino Dawaa, since starting the venture a few months ago.

gabrielle.piche@winnipegfreepress.com