SIIT set to launch innovation accelerator for Indigenous entrepreneurs
“Entrepreneurship is the driver of Saskatchewan’s economy and the new Indigenous innovation accelerator creates our own Indigenous ecosystem,” says Chief Darcy Bear (Whitecap Dakota First Nation), board chair of the Saskatchewan Indian Institute of Technologies (SIIT).
Bear is referring to the first innovation accelerator in Saskatchewan dedicated to empowering grassroots Indigenous entrepreneurship, which will be launched this fall by SIIT. The centre’s mandate will be to support, educate, and mentor Indigenous people by providing space, R&D resources, and training to create successful start-ups. The first cohort’s projects will focus on sustainable land and resource management, community economic development and social innovation.
“Being resourceful and thoughtfully considering the needs of the community are intrinsic values to many Indigenous cultures in the province, but many of our people need guidance to turn that great idea into a reality. That is where this centre comes in to assist,” says Ryan Jimmy (Onion Lake Cree Nation), centre lead and associate director of Strategic Initiatives. What makes the indigenous accelerator particularly unique is that it answers two articles of the United Nations Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) by empowering Indigenous people to strengthen their distinct economies (Article 5) while benefitting from training in a culturally relevant environment (Article 15).
In developing the centres, SIIT worked closely with colleagues from the St. Paul’s College Greenhouse Incubator at the University of Waterloo. SIIT adopted the lessons learned from the Waterloo project to inform their accelerator’s development while anchoring the centre in best practices in Indigenous pedagogy.
The Indigenous innovation accelerator is just the latest example of SIIT’S unique approach to programming. In 2009, cognizant of the critical need for safe and reliable air transportation for northern communities, SIIT founded the Saskatoon Aviation Learning Centre and began offering the Aircraft Maintenance Engineering (AME) program. “Like all SIIT programs, all students are welcome regardless of their ancestry. This is particularly true for AME as there is no equivalent program anywhere else in the prairie provinces,” says Vp–academics Tavia Laliberte. This program has been developed with industry partners and walks in lockstep with Transport Canada’s standards of safety and performance.
As one of only four accrediting post-secondary institutions in the province, SIIT exceeds standards of curriculum development to meet industry needs while ensuring a learning environment steeped in Indigenous ways of learning and knowing. This embedding of cultural content within the professional curriculum is transformational and is one of the leading reasons why SIIT curriculum is requested by other post-secondary institutions throughout the country.
One ground-breaking program that has sparked national interest is Indigenous Practical Nursing (IPN), launched in the fall of 2019. This is the first of its kind in Canada that marries innovative technologies with traditional Indigenous practices while learning and practicing cultural protocols. The development of this program started in 2015 with the release of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada Report (TRC), specifically Call to Action 23, recommending increased numbers of Indigenous professionals working in health care and cultural competency training for all health care professionals.
While the IPN program is currently only on offer at the SIIT Saskatoon Campus, the hope is to bring IPN into First Nations communities so that students can learn while drawing on all the benefits of remaining at home.
This provincial outreach is central to SIIT’S mandate with campuses in Saskatoon, Regina and Prince Albert as well as nine career centres located throughout the province. SIIT is also invited into numerous First Nation communities each year to partner in program delivery. “As a First Nation-governed institution, we continue to implement our inherent and Treaty rights to education. SIIT is mandated to respond to the needs of our communities and nations,” says Chief Bobby Cameron (Witchekan Lake First Nation) Chief of the Federation of Sovereign Indigenous Nations.
As the latest initiative in SIIT’S suite of services, there is significant optimism regarding how the Indigenous innovation accelerator can support Indigenous communities. “These entrepreneurship projects can be a catalyst for positive change within a community,” says Riel Bellegarde, president and CEO of SIIT. “When an accelerator graduate returns home with a successful startup, this venture gives back to the community through economic development, employment opportunities and role modeling that will galvanize future generations of community leaders. This is an empowering centre of self-determination that will benefit all Saskatchewanians. SIIT is excited to be driving this change.”