Bridging Cultural Values and Overcoming Funding and Mentorship Barriers to Empower Indigenous Women Entrepreneurs
4 min read · Dec 2024
Ashley Richard (2021)
While Indigenous women are unique in their skills and backgrounds, they share many challenges and commonalities when it comes to their experiences with entrepreneurship.
Summary
Indigenous women entrepreneurs are emerging as a prominent force within Canadian women’s entrepreneurship, establishing businesses at a rate twice that of non-Indigenous women. By examining their entrepreneurial journeys, this research sheds light on the common challenges faced by women entrepreneurs and the unique barriers and experiences encountered by Indigenous women.
Method
This qualitative study employed a series of roundtable community consultations to gather data from 350 Indigenous women entrepreneurs across Canada. Hosted by the Women Entrepreneurship Knowledge Hub (WEKH) from April to June 2020, these roundtables brought together a diverse group of participants. While the Indigenous women entrepreneurs showed diverse skills and backgrounds, they share many common challenges and entrepreneurial experiences.
Key Findings
Indigenous women entrepreneurs have unique demographical characteristics and business profiles.
Indigenous people tend to have lower income and formal education levels than non-Indigenous Canadians.
On average, Indigenous women entrepreneurs are even younger compared to women who own small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Canada.
Both women entrepreneurs and Indigenous women entrepreneurs are more likely to have businesses in service industries with smaller sizes.
Over 65% of Indigenous women entrepreneurs operate within a sole proprietorship structure.
Women entrepreneurs and Indigenous women entrepreneurs share common challenges.
Accessing capital is a significant barrier, especially due to the administrative hurdles in securing startup capital.
The lack of mentorship opportunities, particularly from Indigenous women mentors, poses a major challenge. 30% of Indigenous women entrepreneurs identified mentorship as their top challenge.
Indigenous women entrepreneurs often struggle to balance multiple roles, including family, community leadership, and business responsibilities.
Cultural values shape Indigenous women’s approach to entrepreneurship.
Many Indigenous women identify as 'creators' rather than 'entrepreneurs' reflecting their cultural traditions passed down through generations. This perspective can influence how they engage with and view entrepreneurship.
The research indicated that Indigenous women entrepreneurs often struggle to fit within Western-centric models of entrepreneurship, which prioritize individual profit over community needs. Rooted in their cultural values, they view entrepreneurship as a way to serve their communities and create ventures that align with their history and traditions.
Indigenous women entrepreneurs in the arts and creative industries are underfunded, and the little funding they receive usually goes to supplies, equipment, and other contributors rather than their personal income.
Francophone Indigenous women entrepreneurs sometimes face language barriers, as many non-federal government entrepreneurial initiatives are available only in English, limiting their access to resources and support.
Takeaways
Indigenous women are vital contributors to their communities and the broader economy. Recommendations from the report highlight actions for funders and ecosystem builders to support Indigenous women in shaping the entrepreneurial ecosystem and contributing their unique knowledge and perspectives:
For funders:
Develop culturally relevant financial literacy programs and increase access to microloans, ensuring programs are designed, led, and implemented by Indigenous women for Indigenous women.
Adjust funding allocations for Indigenous women entrepreneurs in the arts and creative industries to include provisions for personal income, as current structures often prioritize payments to contributors and employees over the entrepreneur’s own financial needs.
Break down administrative barriers to accessing startup capital and ensure programs are offered in English, French, and Indigenous languages if necessary.
Ensure all funding initiatives are culturally sensitive by incorporating traditional values and Western business concepts, and involve Indigenous women to foster trust, authenticity, and long-term impact.
Partner and/or collaborate with AFIs (Aboriginal Financial Institutions) to create funds that can be distributed through AFIs, as AFIs are in the position to best support Indigenous women entrepreneurs.
For ecosystem builders:
Establish mentorship programs, particularly those designed and led by Indigenous women.
Design programs to accommodate the multiple roles Indigenous women balance, including family and community responsibilities.
Focus on reframing entrepreneurship in ways that resonate with Indigenous values to combat cultural stereotypes.
Ensure Indigenous women’s representation within the Board of Directors and decision-making roles.
References
Richard, Ashley. 2021. “Mikwam Makwa Ikwe (Ice Bear Woman): A national needs analysis on Indigenous women’s entrepreneurship.” Women Entrepreneurship Knowledge Hub. https://wekh.ca/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/Mikwam_Makwa_Ikwe-EN.pdf.
About WIN-VC Canada:
New Power Labs is the research lead of the Women and Nonbinary (W) Impact (I) Network (N) for Venture Capital (VC), a national collaborative of organizations working to provide services, programming, events, and dedicated resources to women and non-binary entrepreneurs and gender lens investors across Canada who are working towards becoming investment ready and increasing the pool of investors driven to invest in these ventures.
This research is part of WIN-VC Canada, supported by the Government of Canada. WIN-VC acknowledges the support of Innovation, Science and Economic Development (ISED). ISED has awarded funding for WIN-VC that will make the venture capital environment more inclusive for women by transforming traditional investment processes, processes and knowledge into respectful and meaningful approaches that value equity and impact with a focus on diverse women and non-binary entrepreneurs and SMEs including Black communities, Indigenous peoples, racialized populations, persons with a disability, 2SLGBTQ2+ and new Canadians.
