Boom at last
Aboriginal businesses are enjoying a multi-billiondollar taste of prosperity.
As a Métis child, Guy Freedman recalls watching helplessly as his mother was forbidden to drink from the same water fountain as her non-aboriginal girlfriends in The Pas, Man.
It’s a painful memory for Mr. Freedman, who began his adult life determined to draw on his strengths to change the image of his community.
“I thought if I can make our people look beautiful, Canadians would think of us differently,” says Mr. Freedman, president and chief executive officer of Nation Media & design Ltd. and First Peoples Group. “Nation Media started from my observations when I was growing up as a Métis kid and watching my mother and aboriginal people deal with such horrible racism.”
Mr. Freedman, 53, runs the Ottawa-based graphic design and communications group, which merges traditional aboriginal ways and beliefs with new media solutions. He employs 10 people.
Mr. Freedman has worked on projects with the rCMP, the Wabano Centre for Aboriginal Health and as a consultant with Health Canada, the Canada School of Public Service, Service Canada, Nr Can, Human resources and Skills development Canada, Aboriginal Affairs and Northern development Canada, and various school boards and private sector companies.
Mr. Freedman’s goal is to fa- cilitate positive relationships and partnerships between industry, governments and aboriginal communities.
“When you see people who are self-identified, particularly Métis people, it has become easier to say we are aboriginal people now that we have taken a place in society — we are playing for the NHL, we became members of parliament, political leaders, prominent Canadian citizens. It’s been a long time coming but its exciting to see so many good business stories,” Mr. Freedman says.
Mr. Freedman started his career working in several roles with the provincial and federal governments before starting Nation Media & design Ltd. in 2001. The company then expanded into consult- ing and relationship building with First Peoples Group.
“We care about our communities and living in them sustainability,” Mr. Freedman says. “I do it for the community, so that more people can go into business. The goal is to create competition because there’s so many talented aboriginal people out there who can do so many beautiful things and make a living for themselves.”
There are more than 37,000 aboriginal-owned businesses in Canada today. A 2011 Td economics report forecasts that by 2016, the value of goods and services created by aboriginal businesses is expected to exceed $13-billion.
JP Gladu, president and CeO of the Canadian Council for Aboriginal Business, says the development and success of aboriginal businesses benefits everyone. “When you engage with aboriginal businesses and communities, they drive local economies and use local resources. When you can use local resources instead of importing them, it’s an improvement to your local bottom line from a strict business sense.”
Mr. Freedman supports CCAB and The Legacy of Hope Foundation’s Where are the Children? The latter promotes awareness of the troubles aboriginals faced in residential schools. The initiative is creating reading material for high school students to educate them about aboriginal Canada.
“It will change the way younger people think. It will bring more respect when these children become adult business leaders and politicians,” Mr. Freedman says. “Look at the canoe. It took as much engineering to build a canoe as it does to build a bridge, and not many understand that.”
Mr. Freedman’s business is growing. In the next few months he’ll be looking to expand into the energy and mining sectors. Working with and for the community, he says there is tremendous growth in Northern Ontario’s ring of Fire.
Mr. Gladu says aboriginal entrepreneurship will continue to grow and create some of the country’s iconic businesses.
“Now we’re really gaining traction,” says Mr. Gladu. “We’re significant players in the economy and it’s about time.”