{"id":60210,"date":"2019-06-20T07:00:28","date_gmt":"2019-06-20T11:00:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/?p=60210"},"modified":"2019-05-14T13:52:26","modified_gmt":"2019-05-14T17:52:26","slug":"indigenous-innovation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2019\/06\/20\/indigenous-innovation\/","title":{"rendered":"Indigenous Innovation"},"content":{"rendered":"

I am one of an estimated 70,000 Indigenous people living in Toronto. And while there is a variety of social services spaces like the Native Women\u2019s Resource Centre of Toronto, Miziwe Biik Aboriginal Employment and Training, Toronto Council Fire Native Cultural Centre, and a handful of businesses sprinkled throughout the city, like restaurants Tea N Bannock in Gerrard India Bazaar, and Pow Wow Caf\u00e9 in Kensington Market, there is no defined space for Indigenous people. While people from the Greek diaspora can find the dishes their yiayia<\/i> used to make and support business owners who\u2019ve immigrated from their home country, that kinship doesn\u2019t exist for the First Nations, M\u00e9tis, and Inuit people.<\/span><\/p>\n

But Toronto City Councillor Kristyn Wong-Tam is looking to change that, with a business incubator and accelerator \u2014 The Indigenous Centre of Innovation and Entrepreneurship (ICIE) \u2014 that aims to spark an eventual Indigenous business and cultural district \u2014 the first of its kind in Canada. <\/span><\/p>\n

After working with an Indigenous consulting firm, Wong-Tam learned that, while an Indigenous district would be a worthy pursuit, it needed a large space to bring people together first. Enter the ICIE, a 16,000-sq. ft., City-owned building at the corner of Jarvis and Dundas streets. When it opens its doors in 2020, it will bring together Indigenous business owners, innovators, culture makers, and entrepreneurs.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"
The Indigenous Business District, Toronto<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u201cConsider the irony \u2014 the First Nations people of Canada\u2019s biggest challenge of creating a district was real estate,\u201d says Wong-Tam. \u201cWe wanted to create that real estate for them for the use of the Indigenous community and the people who want to do business with them.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

In addition to small business space, there will be programming, mentorship, and networking opportunities for participating entrepreneurs to scale up their skills and their business. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe Indigenous youth and new business start-ups tell me that conventional models of start-ups don\u2019t work for them,\u201d she adds. \u201cThey want to be able to grow their business in a space that is culturally appropriate, but at the same time be able to access the tools that are available in other spaces where they don\u2019t feel comfortable.<\/span><\/p>\n

JP Gladu, president and CEO of the Canadian Council for Aboriginal Business, says he\u2019s been working with Wong-Tam for a few years on the initiatives, alongside the Mississaugas of the New Credit Nation\u2019s Chief Stacey Laforme. (The City of Toronto sits on that nation\u2019s land.)<\/span><\/p>\n

According to national research done by the CCAB, Indigenous people contributed about $12 billion in business in 2016, across the country. There are over 40,000 Indigenous businesses in operation in Canada, and a growing Indigenous economy and entrepreneurial base.<\/span><\/p>\n

Gladu hopes the business incubator will be a place to shatter the myths about Indigenous people as business owners that \u201cwe don\u2019t know how to run a business, that we struggle \u2014 many of the socio-economic indicators point to lowered life expectancy rates, education completion rates, you name it. So Canadians haven\u2019t really had an opportunity to see what we\u2019re capable of.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Toronto\u2019s innovation wouldn\u2019t necessarily work in other Canadian cities, which each have their own complicated relationship to their Indigenous population. <\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"
Kihciy Askiy, Edmonton<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Edmonton is within Treaty 6 territory and, according to the 2016 Census, has the second largest Aboriginal population of any municipality in Canada, including First Nation, Inuit, and M\u00e9tis people.<\/span><\/p>\n

Edmonton is currently in the development stage for an Indigenous culture and wellness centre, which includes determining in collaboration with Indigenous communities, what functions they want to see it serve. There\u2019s also the outdoor ceremonial and culture site, Kihciy Askiy, that\u2019s going into construction this year. With about 2.5 hectares and four sweat lodges, it will provide a setting for ceremonies, growing medicinal herbs, and creating traditional crafts, and will be available to the general public to provide education about Indigenous traditions, when it opens next spring. The project is a partnership between the City of Edmonton and the Native Counselling Services of Alberta. <\/span><\/p>\n

Despite a number of Indigenous-aimed spaces in the works, Mike Chow, director of Indigenous Relations for the City of Edmonton, says he doesn\u2019t think the City is quite there yet. \u201cIt\u2019s unfortunate that Alberta has this view of being redneck or of social conservatism,\u201d he says. \u201cTo not acknowledge that we still have these challenges and incidences that take us backwards \u2026 we have to stay vigilant.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

He adds that working with Indigenous communities is a tremendous opportunity. \u201cIf people are leaving reserves for opportunities like post-secondary education or employment, wouldn\u2019t we rather them come to Edmonton than anywhere else? It makes sense from a diversity and economic perspective to make the city hospitable,\u201d says Chow.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"
Kihciy Askiy, Edmonton<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Meanwhile, in Vancouver, City Councillor Andrea Reimer says the City has a dynamic and complex relationship with its local First Nations, including three overlapping claims to the territory and no treaties.<\/span><\/p>\n

The City works closely with the MST (Musqueam Indian Band, Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh Nations) Development Corporation on residential and commercial planning for a tract of undeveloped land in the city. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re looking at community benefits agreements to see how their community members will be employed, and the [Vancouver International] airport is the first that we\u2019re aware of in the world with a revenue sharing agreement with the Musqueam, because the airport sits on their territory. That\u2019s pretty revolutionary in the context of reconciliation,\u201d says Reimer. She adds that they\u2019re also working together on fighting the Kinder Morgan pipeline.<\/span><\/p>\n

She thinks replicating the Indigenous District that Toronto is proposing would be complex in Vancouver \u2014 there\u2019s the lack of treaties with reserve lands, three nations working to settle the issue of their title and rights to the land \u2014 but not impossible. \u201cIt\u2019d be a long way down the list.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

While the City has over 100 initiatives they\u2019re currently working on with the nations in and surrounding Vancouver \u2014 including Indigenous design guidelines, statements of acknowledgment of land, and an Indigenous Fashion Week \u2014 Reimer says that the City, the First Nations territories, and the urban-dwelling Indigenous people \u201care virtually making it up as we go along.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve looked all over the world and there is no manual for reconciliation,\u201d says Reimer. \u201cThis is not a time for the government to say, \u2018just trust us,\u2019 but every single time we put an invitation to the community to engage in this work, the main overwhelming response is \u2018thank you for making the space\u2019.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

She says that this unstructured alliance has lent itself to a lack of documentation, and she adds that if you want to hear about it, you\u2019ll have to find a storyteller, which, ultimately, is a very Indigenous thing to do.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cOne of the main things we hear from the three nations that Vancouver sits on is how profound the experience of being erased from their own territory has been \u2014 culture, language, visibility \u2014 so we\u2019ve worked really hard on over the last few years as the relationship has deepened,\u201d she says. \u201cThat\u2019s the next mountain we\u2019re climbing is how to make visible again the three nations.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

Renderings courtesy ERA Architects;\u00a0<\/i><\/span>the City of Edmonton<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\"\"This story originally appeared in <\/em>Spacing issue 47, Summer 2018.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I am one of an estimated 70,000 Indigenous people living in Toronto. 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