PhD candidate examines enacting values as a pathway to success for Indigenous entrepreneurs

Indigenous entrepreneurs often experience colonial dissonance—tension that arises from operating their business in a western marketplace based on competitive and capitalist values that are out of sync with their own as Indigenous Peoples.

SFU Beedie PhD candidate and Indigenous (Michif) scholar, Jordyn Hrenyk, conducted research to better understand the role of values in Indigenous entrepreneurship, by engaging 40 Indigenous beadwork entrepreneurs from Nations across colonial states of Canada and the U.S.

The business of beading

The art of beadwork is rooted in Indigenous history and the creation of jewelry, regalia, accessories and art. Beading is a traditional medium for passing on stories and knowledge; the process of beading is often described as medicine and ceremony. Thus, for beadwork entrepreneurs, creating and selling a beaded piece is more than merely doing business.

One of the first things a beader learns is how to manage tension. Thread or sinew must not be pulled too tight or left too loose, to ensure each bead sits securely in its place. Similarly, Hrenyk observed that Indigenous beadwork entrepreneurs have devised strategies to try to manage values tensions between western capitalism and Indigenous ways of knowing, being, and doing, to support their entrepreneurship.

Using the Métis methodology kishkeeyihtamaaniwan kaa-nahohtamihk (learning from listening and paying attention), Hrenyk conducted conversational interviews and, as an Indigenous beader herself, participated in beading community events and activities to learn more about the market for beadwork. Hrenyk learned that beadwork entrepreneurs alleviate values tensions and manage colonial dissonance by co-creating spaces where they can learn from one another and collaboratively imagine ways of doing business that better align with Indigenous values of relationality, in a process she calls Indigenous Entrepreneuring.

Just as beading brings individual beads together into a cohesive collective, the beadworkers are united as an interdependent network of entrepreneurs. Through a journey of pe-kīwēwin (coming home), the beadworkers enact traditional values of relationality to conduct business in a way that lifts up themselves and other community members, mitigating the values tension of colonial dissonance while achieving business success on their own terms.

Murmurations

Hrenyk developed an arts-based research method of analyzing her data called Indigenous Beading Analysis. She demonstrates this method in her beaded work, Murmurations, a circular piece made up of 16 rows of seed beads of various colours and finishes beaded onto a fabric base.

The rows comprise a story of Indigenous conceptions of business. The first phase is a web, centred around Anishinaabe teachings of niibi, or water, that flows in and out of all living things, representing interconnectedness. The web is the core of the piece and the rest of the story is literally and metaphorically built around it.

The second phase rows tell of the destructive implications of colonialism: separation from relations and ceremony, the imposition of capitalistic principles, and the loss of traditional economic ways of being. Indigenous resistance and cultural custodianship emerge in this phase, as does a discourse on Indigenous “development” in western contexts, including economic development and entrepreneurship.  The emergence of ways of communicating, connecting and sharing knowledge across distances cultivate belonging. Here Hrenyk expresses hope that western ways of doing business are losing prominence and the influence of the old ways can be more strongly felt.

The third and final phase of Murmurations tells the importance of Knowledge Keepers passing on community knowledge so that Indigenous entrepreneurs, such as beadworkers, can be grounded in traditional economic values. It tells of the importance of interconnection to forge ways of honouring traditional perspectives within the constraints of the colonial marketplace.

Research with purpose

The purpose of Indigenous research is to provide value and meaning to participants and communities involved in the work. Hrenyk has done this by reporting back to her participants, sharing knowledge and evidence that supports their efforts to enact Indigenous business values as a pathway to achieving business success as they define it.

To support participants’ work as beadworkers, Hrenyk has curated an exhibit of beadwork from 24 of the Indigenous artists-entrepreneurs who participated in her research, at an Indigenous-managed, Vancouver-based gallery.

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“Pe-kīwēwin: Confronting Commercialized Spaces with Stitched Relationality” runs from August 15 to October 17, 2024 at Massy Arts Gallery. An opening reception will be held August 17, from 2 to 4 p.m.

See Massy Arts Gallery for more information.