Indigenous Makers in Ontario: Local Small Businesses to Support now
Ontario is full of creative, innovative, hard-working local makers and producers, and some amazing Indigenous-owned small businesses. Weaving their traditions and history throughout their businesses, these makers and artisans are creating one-of-a-kind products that are some of the best in the region, while integrating the values of their First Nations communities into their craft.
Beam Paints
M'Chigeeng First Nation, Manitoulin Island, ON
Beam Paints is an Indigenous-owned and female-led paint company based out of M'Chigeeng First Nation on Manitoulin Island, Ontario. Beam Paints produces beautiful hand-crafted watercolour paints which are non-toxic, and are made from natural pigments which are crafted using a wide variety of natural materials from the Manitoulin region including locally-sourced honey, washed stone, sumac, and wild tree sap. Made with lightfast pigments (resistant to fading by light exposure), Beam Paints' pigments are known for being smooth, easy to work with, rich in colour and are a favourite of watercolour artists across the country.
Owner Anong Beam keeps her Indigenous culture woven through all her paints, which are named in her native Ojibwe language, like Neebin Giizis’aande (Summer Sun Red), Ziigwun’aande (spring green) and Dwaagi’Azaadibuk’aande (fall poplar yellow).
Birch Bark Coffee Co.
Ottawa, ON
Roasting up organic, fair trade and SPP certified coffee, Birch Bark Cofffee Co. is an Ontario-based coffee company brewing up delicious coffee and social change.
Established in 2018 by owner Mark Marsolais-Nahwegahbow, an Ojibwe and a band member of Whitefish River First Nation, Birch Bark Coffee Co. is an innovative First Nations social enterprise, with a mission to elevate the standard of living of First Nations people. Inspired by his local community, Mark’s purpose is to improve the lives of Indigenous people by bringing clean drinking water to First Nations communities across Canada. For every 100 bags of coffee sold in store, and every 50 bags sold on their online store, Birch Bark Coffee provides one home with a certified water purification unit purchased and installed for free.
Birch Bark Coffee Co. has a variety of unique coffee blends, all organic, fair trade, SPP certified and full of rich flavour. Each blend has a name symbolic of important elements and symbols of Indigenous culture, including the Summer Solstice dark roast, Coureurs des Bois medium roast and Dream Catcher decaf. Their coffee is available online for shipping across Canada and can be found in numerous stores, cafes and shops across Canada.
Cheekbone Beauty
St. Catharines, ON
With vegan, sustainable, high-performance makeup and beauty products, Cheekbone Beauty is changing the face of the cosmetics industry. This popular beauty brand, founded in St. Catharines, Ontario, is one of the first Indigenous-owned and founded cosmetics companies in Canada.
Cheekbone Beauty also gives back to its Indigenous roots, and supports many organizations dedicated to helping Indigenous communities. In 2021 they launched their Beauty Scholarship Fund Program, and each year the company produces limited-edition “For Future Generations” products where 100% of all proceeds are used to fund Indigenous youth scholarships. They also support the First Nations Child & Family Caring Society of Canada with 10% of profits from sales going to this important organization. Items can be purchased online, or at stores throughout Canada and the U.S.A.
Giizhigat Maple Products
St. Joseph’s Island, ON
Maple syrup is a Canadian staple, and Giizhigat Maple Products on St. Joseph's Island, Ontario, has been producing maple syrup on their farm on St. Joseph's Island since 2012.
Owner Deborah, a member of Six Nations of the Grand River, and her husband Issac, a member of the Serpent River First Nation, have a long family history of producing maple syrup. The name Giizhigat in Ojibwe translates to “Day”, and is also Isaac’s original family name, prior to being translated to English by the Government. The traditional way of harvesting maple syrup is a key part of their business, and they create their maple syrup in the traditional way; tapping trees using an axe, collecting sap in birchbark baskets, hauling sap from the bush on large horse-drawn stone canoes, and boiling it in cast-iron kettles.
Among their must-try products are their delicious dark maple syrup, maple butter, maple sugar and as well as some beautiful gift baskets.While their main business is maple products, they also sell authentic Indigenous crafts (created by Deborah's mother), and the long term vision of Giizhigat is to reinvest profits into a teaching lodge, with the aim of creating a place where everyone can learn how to reconnect with Mother Earth, and live in harmony through traditional knowledge.
Red Sky Candles
Manitoulin Island, ON
Creating beautiful and unique beeswax candles, Red Sky Candles is an Indigenous-owned business in Northern Ontario that embodies environmental sustainability, creativity and Indigenous culture.
For owner Jackie Esquimaux-Hamlin, an Anishnawbekwe from Aundeck Omni Kaning First Nations Reserve on Manitoulin Island, and her husband Brian, beginning Red Sky candles was a natural choice. With Brian's dedication to promoting pollination awareness and environmental sustainability in the region, they decided to start their own business with a renewable resource in their backyard; their own beehives. Not only do they harvest the wax to create their intricately designed candles, but they also produce delicious unpasteurized honey which they infuse with all-natural ingredients like cedar, sage, birch, cranberries, herbs and spices.
Manitoulin Brewing
Little Current, Manitoulin Island, ON
Founded in 2014 by friends Nishin Meawasige, Blair Hagman and Joet Dhatt, Manitoulin Brewing is a small craft brewery making waves across the world's largest freshwater island. With its brewing hub located in the town of Little Current on Manitoulin Island's north shore, Manitoulin Brewing produces a series of unique brews that combine local pride with its Indigenous roots.
“Manitoulin” is the Ojibwe word meaning “great spirit”, and co-owner Nishin Measwasig has deep roots on the island, having grown up on Whitefish River First Nation. Before starting Manitoulin Brewing with his partners, Nishin spent 15 years working with Whitefish River First Nation, connecting Indigenous nations and governments with the Friendship Centre Movement in Canada.
Made with love, hops, malt, and water from Lake Manitou (the world’s largest lake within a freshwater island in the world), Manitoulin Island Brewing pays homage to iconic landmarks on the island in all its brews, from Bridal Veil Pale Ale, to the Swing Bridge Blonde. As part of the brewery's commitment to the Indigenous community, they hire and train brewery staff from members of the local Indigenous community whenever possible, while their onsite menu sources ingredients from the island's Indigenous food producers.
You can find Manitoulin Island Brewing's wide selection of beers at their small brewery on the island, and in more than 200 LCBOs across Ontario.
