‘Lender with a heart’ pumps up Indigenous entrepreneurs

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This article was published 25/06/2024 (705 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Dustin Murdock grew up in Fisher River Cree Nation, where being a member of a gym wasn’t necessarily a big thing.

But after a childhood as a sports enthusiast — his family moved some 190 kilometres south to Winnipeg so he could pursue high school athletics — that passion never left him.

Following an undergraduate degree in kinesiology at the University of Winnipeg, he went back to Fisher River and opened gym and was a health and fitness co-ordinator in the community for four years.

During that time, he earned a master’s degree at the University of Manitoba in physical therapy and became a physiotherapist. (In 2022, Murdock was named to CBC Manitoba’s list of 10 Manitobans 40 or younger who are working to make the province better for future generations.)

With the help of a loan from Futurpreneur’s Indigenous Entrepreneur Startup Program (IESP), Murdock started his own physiotherapy practice in the capital — Adapt Physical Therapy — a little more than a year ago.

Murdock is one of about 300 young Indigenous entrepreneurs who are part of the five year-old IESP, which is on a mission to support many more.

Holly Atjecoutay, a Calgary-based Cree-Saulteaux entrepreneur who was appointed IESP director in 2022, is effusive about the environment in which she and her team of eight development officers work in.

“It’s amazing to see where we were two years ago, versus where we are today,” she said. “We’re supporting so many incredible young entrepreneurs to launch their businesses. It’s been busy and we’ve covered a lot ground.”

The national program offers up to $60,000 in market rate loans and one-on-one mentorship.

Atjecoutay said her Indigenous clients now make up about five per cent of Futurpreneur’s total client base (the representation Indigenous people have in the total population of Canada).

Applicants must be between 18 and 39 years old. Financial assistance is no different from its mainstream program, but the IESP is run entirely by an Indigenous team incorporating Indigenous worldviews and histories, as much as possible.

Atjecoutay likes to say the IESP is a “lender with a heart” and the program works hard at smoothing out any wrinkles that may exist in applicants’ credit ratings.

It’s also introducing many potential clients to a banking environment that had previously existed behind systemic barriers. The IESP has a comprehensive Indigenous-themed study program on financial empowerment its spreading to communities with the hopes of eroding some of those cultural roadblocks

Noah Wilson, part of IESP’s “small but mighty” team, is the program’s senior business development manager covering Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Nunavut.

As well as working one-on-one with local clients, Wilson has been on the road establishing partnerships in communities throughout his region.

“Many First Nations are taking more of a keen interest in developing entrepreneurs in the community rather than just creating band-owned subsidiaries,” he said.

To that end, in Manitoba, IESP recently partnered with Norway House Cree Nation’s economic development department to help it with entrepreneurial initiatives. One month ago, Wilson was in Sagkeeng for an economic development conference and in Opaskwayak Cree Nation shortly after.

“We’re really making a concerted effort to be a service provider that goes into communities and to build a personal ground-level relationship where ever we can,” he said.

Futurpreneur works closely with the growing ecosystem supporting Indigenous entrepreneurs. (That now includes the new Indigenous incubator and accelerator just announced at RRC Polytech in Winnipeg.)

For instance, Fabian Sanderson, CEO of First Peoples Economic Growth Fund, said its representatives make sure anyone the organization works with who are under 40 are aware of what Futurpreneur offers.

“We try to make sure they have all the tools they require,” Sanderson said. “It is a small community but it’s easier when everyone works cohesively.”

Murdock said he’s still in the process of establishing a client base at his south Winnipeg clinic, but is also keen to help provide a little relief to the “stressed” health-care system on local reserves.

“A lot of First Nation communities don’t have physical therapy services, so it could be another way to provide health care in the communities where services are needed,” he said. “I see my job largely as providing a way to give people insights into how they are feeling.”

Murdock said he’s not self-conscious about the fact there aren’t many (if any other) Indigenous physiotherapists in the province.

It could eventually turn out be a competitive advantage.

“Despite the fact that almost every socio-economic metric in our communities feel a gap compared to the rest of Canada, it can provide a huge opportunity for (Indigenous) business creation to provide those service that had not previously existed,” Wilson said.

martin.cash@freepress.mb.ca