Amplifying Indigenous Voices in Business: Indigenization, Reconciliation, and Entrepreneurship

By Priscilla Omulo

Some of the common questions businesses, educational institutions, and communities ask are: “Do we need an Indigenization strategy? If so, why; what is it really?; and, how do we do it?”

Amplifying Indigenous Voices in Business is for organizations and allies who would like to make a positive difference by learning how to amplify Indigenous voices, Indigenize businesses, and support Indigenous entrepreneurship, all in the bigger spirit of reconciliation.

Author Priscilla Omulo addresses Canada’s complicated history with Indigenous peoples and how that contributes to today’s challenges in the business realm. While the challenge is real, so is the opportunity, and Omulo’s step-by-step guide explains how any organization can make immediate plans to improve the way they do business by doing the research, consulting the right people, and formulating a strategy to move forward. Omulo shows readers how a commitment to doing the right thing will lead to a more sustainable and inclusive place for all, and a stronger foundation for businesses and other organizations.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Self-Counsel Press
• Release date: Feb 15, 2022
• ISBN: 9781770405325

Priscilla Omulo

Priscilla Omulo of Tsartlip First Nation has amassed more than a decade of experience advocating for and working with Indigenous youth and families. She sits on a variety of anti-racism boards and task forces. Omulo was also awarded the Women’s Collaborative Hub — Indigenous Leadership Award (2019). This is her first book.

Book preview

Preface

My name is Priscilla Omulo and I am a Tsartlip First Nations woman. I am a facilitator and consultant sharing about Indigneous culture, decolonization, Indigenization, allyship, reconciliation, anti-racism, and justice. My business is ZINC̸O SȽÁNI which means Thunderbird Woman in SENĆOŦEN of the W̱SÁNEĆ people.

We are Straits Salish People, also known as the saltwater people, because we lived from the bounty of the ocean and the land. Our name, W̱SÁNEĆ, was anglicized to Saanich when the white people arrived in our territory. Today the W̱SÁNEĆ live on four small reserves at the location of our winter village site, my mother’s family being West Saanich/Tsartlip.

I remember my mother telling me a story about how they used to call my grandmother Thunderbird Woman because she would get these headaches when thunder was coming. Although having not met my mother’s mother I have always felt connected through the teachings my mother passed down to me. Since I was a small child I have suffered with migraines and this had me wondering whether I am connected to my grandmother in this way as well. When I was searching for a name for this new path in my life I came across a 2018 quote from the curator of Indigenous and contemporary art at the Winnipeg Art Gallery: The Thunderbird Woman represents a figure of transformation, half-woman and half-bird. It is an icon, a symbolic message of hope and matriarchal strength. Jaimie Isaac’s words spoke to me and I thought why not honour my matriarch through name and story. (Daphne Odjig’s Thunderbird Woman recreated at UWinnipeg, The University of Winnipeg News, October 10, 2018.)

I have dedicated more than ten years of my life to working with Indigenous children, youth, women, and families. My work has spanned from addressing domestic violence, group homes, Ministry of Children and Family Development supports, and postsecondary, to facilitating programs, coordinating provincial councils, writing reports, and research.

My work in consulting started organically as I facilitated many workshops and events and then was asked to do this for a variety of other institutions, organizations, and businesses. It was part time and casual until the beginning of 2020 when I started full time. After losing my husband I made a promise to myself to only do things that fill my cup. This included contracts I accepted, friends, volunteer work, and hobbies.

During the pandemic I started to paint as an outlet for my feelings towards the state of the world. I was feeling defeated, angry, sad, worried; and overwhelmed with white supremacy, colonization, anti-Indigenous racism, and the impacts of these on myself and those I love.

When the opportunity came to write this book I decided to push that energy into action. ReconciliACTION! I needed to have faith that those who are picking up this book are doing so with the best of intentions, and why not offer them my experience, knowledge, feelings, and thoughts?

This is not just for me or for you. This is but one step towards reconciliation and it is written in hopes to have positive impacts for the next seven generations.

My goal is to seek justice in this world. As I type I see my now two-year-old son playing with his toy piano, wearing a shirt that says love is love. My hope is that his world will be that much better than mine was, than his grandmothers’ was.

Reconciliation is not only acknowledgement of past wrongdoing, justice for the genocide, rectification of lost language, culture, and identity, it is about creating a future where all children matter.

One of the greatest points I cannot emphasize enough is that reconciliation, decolonization, equity, and justice work is emotional labour for many Black, Indigenous, and People of Colour (BIPOC) folks. This is not something that is like any other report or task that we can pick up and put down, hand off, or on which we can do the bare minimum. This is work that will impact the very safety, happiness, and wellness of ourselves, our family, friends, and generations to come. This is a responsibility we do not take lightly.

There were many moments that I broke down crying as I wrote. Although this is a how-to book and not my personal story, it is in essence still my personal story. This is the culmination of years of learning who I am, what I stand for, and handling personal experiences of racism and oppression that led me to the space I am today to be able to share this knowledge with you.

My existence is resistance — resistance to genocide. My existence is political because who I am is what I stand for, it is how I walk in this world is political. The fact that I sat at tables that felt uncomfortable with me and what I had to say, ignored me, and pushed me out yet I still stand here believing in what I say and do is resilience in itself. I am grounded in my teachings, protocols, and I held close to my heart my mother’s words.

I wish I had my late husband here through this journey. I would replay his words in my head about how I have a voice and knowledge and I am worthy. What I know, what I have experienced, who I am is something. This is what I have to offer to you in this book. My learning and unlearning of the colonial system.

My goals are that you follow this journey with me and do what you can to build a better just world. Commit to Truth and Reconciliation with not only the best of intentions but with utilization of all the power and privilege you hold. We are all more powerful than we can imagine, especially when it comes to justice. There are so many times that the work is left to BIPOC folks and that needs to stop now.

Take responsibility, hold yourself and others accountable, be transparent, do the heavy lifting. It is only when we all work together in places and spaces we can that we are going to dismantle the systems of oppression.

There is this misconception that the world will be destroyed with the dismantling of the capitalist and colonial systems. I believe that COVID-19 has shown us that there is more to what we are than employees in cubicles. There is a world without capitalist, white supremacy systems. They existed generations before contact and it is not going backwards to conceive of a world that removes these systems and builds a decolonial system of equity and justice.

Imagine a world where our children and seven generations to come have access to clean water, trees, air, time to be with one another, safety, and freedom. Unless we make changes now we can only imagine instead of knowing that reality.

I do not pretend to have the answers to the world’s problems but I can share my story, experiences, ideas, and hope that you can strive to implement changes to make your space that much better. Push the boundaries because if we do not do this within ourselves, our families, and homes, as well as our community and work then where? When? How?

Introduction

Common questions businesses, educational institutions, and communities ask are, What is an Indigenization strategy? Do I need one? And where did all this come from?

In 2015, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) published its calls to action. This gave specific directives to diverse aspects of the relationship between Canada and Indigenous peoples.

Specifically, the TRC calls upon the corporate sector in Canada to adopt the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) as a reconciliation framework and to apply its principles, norms, and standards to corporate policy and core operational activities not only involving Indigenous peoples but also over the lands and resources traditionally occupied by them.

This does sound easier said than done and it leads to an even bigger question: How?

The TRC has broken this down into three different ways to begin this work and within that there are also three levels of depth so that you can adhere to this call from within your own structure.

1. Commit to meaningful consultation, building respectful relationships, and obtaining the free, prior, and informed consent of Indigenous peoples before proceeding with economic development projects.

2. Ensure that Aboriginal peoples have equitable access to jobs, training, and education opportunities in the corporate sector, and that Aboriginal communities gain long-term sustainable benefits from economic development projects.

3. Provide education for management and staff on the history of Aboriginal peoples, including the history and legacy of residential schools, the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, Treaties and Aboriginal rights, Indigenous law, and Aboriginal-Crown relations. This will require skills based training in intercultural competency, conflict resolution, human rights, and anti-racism.

(Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada: Calls to Action www.irsss.ca/downloads/trc-calls-to-action.pdf, accessed October, 2021.)

If you were to work towards an Indigenization strategy, how deep would it have to go into your core structure? An academic article by (Dr. Gaudry and Ms. Lorenzo, Indigenization as inclusion, reconciliation, and decolonization: navigating the different visions for Indigenizing the Canadian Academy, AlterNative: An International Journal of Indigenous Peoples, 2018) took a look at the Indigenization of the academy and this can be transferable to this question. They found that there are generally three categories: Indigenous inclusion, reconciliation Indigenization, and decolonial Indigenization.

Indigenous inclusion is by far the most common and it is the easiest step to take in the beginning. Inclusion requires the least amount of structural change as it focuses primarily around representation by increasing the percentage of hired employees. This veil however is misleading because increasing the number of Indigenous people within does not make it a more Indigenous place and ultimately leaves the burden of change on these Indigenous people.

Reconciliation Indigenization requires some structural changes to the core ways of your business and it is inclusive of the TRC calls to action by educating Canadians about Indigenous people, the diversity in Indigenous culture, history, and reconciliation itself. However, one has to be aware and careful how this is brought about because there is a tendency to maintain the colonial relationship.

The boldest commitment a business can make would be that of decolonial Indigenization. This approach would most likely require a complete breakdown of your structure and core to rebuild in a way that offers space to include land-and-community-based education; ceremonies; Indigenous language use; communal ownership of knowledge; and formal recognition of a range of Indigenous protocols and practices around sharing, evaluating, and interpreting knowledge.

Going back to the original question posed here: Do you need an Indigenization strategy? Well that is a question that only you can answer, and it depends on you as well as the degree in which you choose to Indigenize. However, I hope your answer is yes, Indigenization is the best path towards social justice for all. When you Indigenize your business you are making your business a culturally safer place for your staff, clients, and the community.

Speaking from an Indigenous perspective, it is a good option to consider. Not only because it is a part of the Canadian Truth and Reconciliation recommendations, that it is good for business externally, or that it is the right thing to do, but because it is a sustainable decision with positive impacts internally and externally — I can safely say that if done