For Indigenous communities that want to embrace traditional knowledge, cultural practices, and languages, the co-op model is a useful tool. This business structure is not only a way to work together to reach important goals, it emphasizes community ownership, shared profits, and collective decision-making.  

At Co-operatives First, we’ve worked with incredible co-ops created by Indigenous people to reach their goals, guided by their own vision and values. Here are four examples of Indigenous-owned co-ops that are having an impact on local efforts to preserve traditional knowledge, culture, and practices.  

Kici Anishinabek Kananakachiwewat Community Service Cooperative: A Beacon for Language and Cultural Revitalization 

In Cote First Nation, a group of Elders saw the difficulties young people were having and wanted to take action to provide them with a sense of community and identity. They decided to form a co-op to tackle the issue. 

“The Elders in my community, we got together because of all the dysfunction in our community, the gangs, the suicide, drug overdoses, those kinds of things,” said Wanda Cote, Elder and founding member of the co-operative. “So a group of us got together and decided, well, what can we do? What can we do to help our youth?” 

The result is the Kici Anishinabek Kananakachiwewat Community Service Cooperative – a co-op focused on revitalizing culture and language among young people. Each year the co-op hosts a culture camp that offers activities like language classes, drum-making, skinning, and land-based activities.  

“It’s not only cultural activities, but there’s going to be a lot of fun activities for the children to come out and just enjoy themselves, get away from the negativity back home and come to a sacred place like this and learn. … We work from our hearts, you know, we feel for our community.”  

The Food Forest and Learning Centre Co-op: A Journey of Reconciliation and Community Engagement 

Maggie Waters’ personal journey of reconciliation led her to create the Food Forest and Learning Centre Co-op along with members of her family. Created on beautiful land she owns on Little Manitou Lake, the co-op aims to foster healing and knowledge of local history and food and medicinal plants that grow abundantly in the area.  

A 60’s Scoop survivor, Maggie found the piece of land after visiting her adopted community, and knew she wanted it to be a place that could encourage kindness and engagement, educating the local community and fostering a sense of unity.  

“I didn’t know what I was doing, you know, I was just doing what ‘reconcile’ meant to me,” Maggie said, “making friends with myself again, making friends with this community that I had such an unpleasant experience in, and actually being kind to these people from this community, to engage with them.” 

The co-operative focuses on cultural exchange, education, and community engagement. It acquired an abandoned church in Viscount, which it transformed into a vibrant community space, and launched programs like a community garden, art therapy sessions, and a school lunch program. These initiatives encourage interaction and understanding between Indigenous and non-Indigenous community members.  

Big River Employment Opportunities Co-operative 

Celine McDonald, a proud Nehiyaw from Big River First Nation, knew the value of the co-op model. She led the creation of two co-ops: a worker co-operative to create employment in her community, and an artists’ co-op that supported their work.  

After a few years the artist co-op disbanded, and the worker co-op was taken over by the band and continued to generate employment opportunities.  

In 2023, Celine decided it was time to revive these ideas. She has helped to start another worker co-op with a new board and a rejuvenated vision, now known as Big River Employment Opportunities. This new co-op’s mission is to help entrepreneurs to find grants, network, and access other services that will help them to thrive. 

A new co-op for artisans is also underway, which Celine said will focus on creating and retaining authentic Cree art while also encouraging language and cultural retention. The co-op will help artists to market and sell their work so they can focus on creating.  

“[Artists] don’t have the time to go and market their things,” she said. “And a lot of times, they cut themselves short, or they’re selling their stuff for a really cheap price, when really like that artwork that they’re doing is wonderful art.” 

Oodenaw Urban Indigenous Consulting Cooperative: Fostering Indigenous-led Consulting through Co-op 

When cousins Carmen Craig and Estrella Whetung wanted to start a consulting agency, they went in search of the perfect business model. The pair had noticed a problem in the consulting industry — that many non-Indigenous firms profited from Indigenous contracts without any real benefit flowing back to Indigenous communities. They knew they wanted to form a consulting group run by and for Indigenous people, where the members could offer each other support while making an impact.  

They decided that forming a co-op was the best way to accomplish this goal. 

“The system isn’t built to let us take care of each other,” Carmen said. “But what we’re doing is trying to be able to do that, because we have to work within what we have right now. So we’re using the [co-op] framework to take care of each other as best we can.” 

Along with a third partner, they started Oodenaw: Urban Indigenous Consulting Co-operative in Victoria, BC. This multi-talented team offers services that include workshop development, learning material creation, policy development, community-based research and engagement, Indigenous engagement training, and more. They specialise in areas like child and family welfare, language and culture resurgence and revitalization, Indigenous governance, and decolonization, and aim to ensure that profits from Indigenous contracts are reinvested into community projects.  

 Want to know more?

The stories of these remarkable businesses and organizations demonstrate the versatile nature of co-operatives. Co-ops can be used to support cultural revival, reconciliation, economic development, and community support.  

If your community sees potential for a co-op, contact us!