Friday, September 30, is National Day for Truth and Reconciliation in Canada. To commemorate this significant date, we are highlighting 10 inspiring Indigenous Canadian leaders who not only act as role models, but are also changing the face of leadership.
When we set out to look for Indigenous leaders, unfortunately, the list was not exhaustive, but it serves as a reminder of the incredible, meaningful work Indigenous people are doing all year round and an opportunity for us to amplify their voices.
Our Top 10 Indigenous Women leaders are from diverse backgrounds, and have a personal brand and a reach with their audience that resonates with our readers. With a profile of their successful careers, personality insights and personal achievements, here are some of the awesome women leaders you need to know and follow!
Shyra Barberstock is the President and CEO of Okwaho Equal Source. Her academic career and entrepreneurship expertise in Indigenous social innovation and social impact is highly sought-after by Canadian public and private institutions. Shyra brings over a decade of experience as a professional Indigenous researcher and has extensive knowledge in Indigenous entrepreneurship, Indigenous economic development, and Indigenous business relations. She received formal training by the Rotman School of Management in Design Thinking and the Playing to Win framework used by Fortune 500 companies world-wide. Of notable interest, Shyra was the first Indigenous Innovator-in-Residence at the former Innovation, Science and Economic Development (ISED) Lab in Ottawa and is a recognized practitioner of Indigenous social innovation and Indigenous business development by the Government of Canada.
As a business leader, Shyra has championed several key initiatives, including the Indigenous Climate Hub, and the highly successful WES Ecosystem funded Queen’s University Kwe-Biz program for Indigenous women entrepreneurs. Shyra is nearing completion of her Ph.D. at Queen’s University in Geography and Planning, with a research focus on Indigenous supply chain and procurement. Shyra is Anishinaabe and a member of Kebaowek First Nation in Kipawa, Quebec.
Melissa is an experienced Indigenous business owner, with demonstrated successes of working in the Indigenous Recruitment industry, using technology across Canada to successfully match job seekers to employers. Winner of the 2019 Game Changer Award with the Thunder Bay Chamber of Commerce.
ORIGIN was the first Indigenous Procurement Champion with the Canadian Council for Aboriginal Business and our proud members since 2017. Skilled in Public Speaking, Motivational work, not to mention Strong leadership skills and a drive to support women to succeed. A Confederation College Alumni as an Executive Administrator and Human Resource Management professional graduate. A strong presence in both her home community, the city of Thunder Bay and a strong connection with her Indigenous Women’s Entrepreneurial colleagues across our Nation.
Jennings represents Raven Capital, which is one of few, if not the only Indigenous-led and focused venture funds.
Jacqueline Jennings is an entrepreneur coach, start-up consultant and group facilitator commonly referred to as Biz-Witch. She is most interested in learning about how we can get more done by doing less, how we can develop our intuition and instincts like any muscle in the body, how a leaders performance is directly impacted by how much they are willing to look at how they get in their own way and how everything we need to know to evolve, survive and thrive as the human race can probably be remembered by really looking at nature. Biomimicry, learning from elders, healing our boring stories, working with horses and waking up about intersectional feminist issues and decolonization are her current favourite topics of conversation.
Jace Meyer birthed COYA Productions Inc with a mission to mobilizethe knowledge of social impact creators, Indigenous entrepreneurs, and unheard youth voices through the production of training programs, online courses, and events with a social Impact. As a Métis founder, Jace believes if you believe in the Consequences Of Your Actions, we can all be better ancestors.
Recognized as a UVic Distinguished Alumni and DMZ Women of the Year, Jace serves her community as a director of the Victoria Native Friendship Centre; the Indigenous LIFT Collective, and as a strategic advisor to the Sage Initiative and Founders Fund, helping to diversify entrepreneurship and venture capital. You can book Jace as a motivational speaker, workshop facilitator, and emcee at JaceActually.ca.
Sheila North is host of BC Winnipeg News Late Night, bringing viewers everything they need to know about the day’s events each weeknight on CBC Television.A member of Bunibonibee Cree Nation (formerly known as Oxford House), Sheila is a storyteller.
She has worked as a journalist for CBC and CTV for over 10 years and left CTV News after being elected Grand Chief of Manitoba Keewatinowi Okimakanak (MKO) in September 2015, a role she held until 2018. She rejoined CBC in 2021 as a reporter.In her roles as Grand Chief and as a journalist, Sheila has been recognized for her efforts building bridges between Indigenous and non-Indigenous communities during her time in media and at MKO.
8. Anita Pawluk | Founder & President | Race Rocks 3D
Anita is a 5th Generation Vancouver Islander, with 25% Métis ancestry and family roots that include Louis Riel (Métis Leader – Canadian Politician). Anita is an experienced entrepreneur and owner of successful Startup companies in diverse fields such as technology, clean energy, construction and storage.
Anita has been honored by Victoria’s $5 billion technology industry with a nomination for Technology Leader of the Year at the VIATEC awards in June. She enjoys growing her team and working with clients and strategic partners to deliver innovative projects that help drive the state of the art in Technology Enabled Learning and Data Analytics.
RaceRocks is an aboriginal and woman managed western Canadian SMB that designs Virtual training systems to accelerate skills training for its airspace and defence clients. RaceRocks also utilizes big data analytics to deliver critical decision-making tools for In Service Support programs. Under Anita’s leadership RaceRocks became a top 75 Canadian Defence company and grew organically as a gender neutral and culturally diverse firm at the executive, management, and team levels. Anita is executing RaceRocks’ strategic plan to hire 80 Canadians over the next 4 years and create socio economic benefits in British Columbia.
9. Bobbie Racette | Founder and CEO | The Virtual Gurus
Racette represents the first Indigenous women in Canadian tech to close a Series A round after she secured an $8.4 million CAD in March.
Bobbie is the Founder and CEO of Virtual Gurus, a Talent as a Service Solution platform that matches its users with the perfect North American Remote Assistants and Freelancers by using matchmaking algorithms. Recently named both Canada’s Indigenous Entrepreneur of the Year and Woman Entrepreneur of the Year, Prairies Region by Startup Canada, Bobbie is an unstoppable force in the Canadian startup community.
She is a Cree-Metis woman who prides herself on building an inclusivity-first company, championing for indigenous people and the LGBTQ+ community. She is a natural leader, sharing her passion by mentoring First Nations Youth who have demonstrated interest in Tech and Business. Forbes announced Virtual Gurus as being one of the top 19 Innovative Tech Startups to watch. Bobbie’s company works with clients who are Fortune 500 executives, startup entrepreneurs, and small business owners.
Laurie Sterritt is a values-based leader with over 25 years’ experience in the fields of Indigenous, government and community relations; business planning & strategy, organizational & leadership development, and executive search. She has managed teams, both large and small, and brings positive energy and empathy to all her work.
In 2018, Laurie formed a non-profit association to launch the first-of-its-kind Indigenous Women’s Leadership Summit (IWLS). The mandate of IWLS is to inspire and uplift Indigenous women throughout their personal and professional journeys. Prior to that, Laurie developed and implemented the Indigenous Employment and Business Development strategy for BC Hydro and led the start-up and growth of the Aboriginal Mentoring and Training Association (AMTA) and its subsidiary social enterprise, First Resources Impact Ventures (FRIV).AMTA provided life-changing education, training and mentorship programs to more than 2700 Indigenous candidates and successfully transitioned more than 1050 trainees into full-time employment in the mining, energy, forestry and industrial construction industries. FRIV was dedicated to assisting First Nation communities to build their own sustainable businesses within the natural resources sectors.
Active in her community, Laurie is a Director for the (new) Canadian Centre for Arts and Technology (CANCAT) and a Council Member on the Real Estate Council of BC. She was previously a Director for the Industry Training Authority and Governor and 1st Vice-Chair of the British Columbia Institute of Technology.