WIBF 2016: Sharing success and economic knowledge
- Angela Hill | September 11, 2016
It was three days of inspiration, success stories and economic knowledge sharing during the 2016 World Indigenous Business Forum (WIBF) in Saskatoon.
From Aug. 23 to 25 approximately 900 delegates from around the world – Canada, Chile, Papua New Guinea, New Zealand, United States among them – came together to learn and share their culture.
“One of the bigger highlights, the affirmation of the common world view that indigenous peoples have when it comes to economics,” said Milton Tootoosis, chair of the WIBF 2016 planning committee, when the final honour song had been sung.
“We hear a lot of messages about sustainable development, about sharing, about helping one another.”
The sharing of information brought Anne Dennis, member of the Gamilaraay Nation and the deputy chairperson of the New South Wales Aboriginal Land Council, all the way from Australia.
She said they want to see what other Indigenous Peoples are doing around land use and delivering services.
“Just look at the similarities and differences and figure out what we can do to make it more sustainable into the future, building an economic base, creating employment and addressing social issues for Aboriginal people in New South Wales.”
More from WIBF 2016:
- Humans of Saskatoon: Witiyana Marika
- Reclaiming Indigenous development at WIBF
- WIBF youth committee gearing up for conference
- PHOTO GALLERY: SWIFFA 2016
Indigenous people want to be stewards of the land, not just milking it all today, but thinking seven generations ahead, said Cadmus Delorme, chief of Saskatchewan’s Cowessess First Nation. While he is not looking to start a company, he said there was a lot to be gained at the conference.
“Business has many aspects to it, it’s not just making money, there’s economic, political, governance and that’s exactly what I got out of this,” he said.
“As a politician we spearhead a lot of the policies, the laws, make sure efficiencies are happening. So now I can go home and debrief with our leadership and my directors to see how Cowessess fits in the economic sphere.”
In particular Delorme appreciated the presentation by Edmund Bellegarde, tribal chairperson of the File Hills Qu’Appelle Tribal Council (FQH) as he spoke about the importance of good governance.
Working with the Johnson Shoyama Graduate School of Public Policy they created an intensive eight day professional program that many of their senior managers, chiefs, councilors and CEOs have graduated.
“We’re looking at rebuilding nations with good governance, that underpinning,” he said.
Building relationships, like the one between FHQ and the public policy school, was a central focus of the WIBF. Chief Robert Louie of British Columbia’s Westbank First Nation talked about the importance of relationships between First Nations and how both parties improve.
“By helping you, we learn as well… we are always willing to learn and that is very, very valuable,” he said.
“We can all learn from one another which makes us strong as indigenous people.”
Sean Willy, vice president of Des Nedhe Development and relationship coach with Creative Fire, spoke about the importance of shared-value relationships with companies and the government.
A community wants employment opportunities, a company wants a good story and the government wants a tax base, so each party gets something out of an agreement—that’s a shared value, he said.
He said if companies and community work together, their joint arrangement can have clout with the government to pull more funding for infrastructure or education.
“Strong, shared-value relationships drive reconciliation,” Willy said.
Other highlights of the event include David Williams, from Australia, playing the didgeridoo, the New Zealand Delegation performing the Haka, a keynote by Ernesto Sirolli, the Indigenous Young Innovators Panel and the Elders’ words and prayers for the forum.
The 2017 forum is set to be in Chile, with New Zealand lined up for 2018.