Ancestral beliefs reflected in modern-day practice

Indigenous Peoples have long believed that everyone in a community ought to be cared for and fed.

These days, that ancestral principle can find itself reflected in the modern social economy and non-profit organizations, including friendship centres, which have successfully adopted it as a pathway to an economic structure, says Kelly Benning, president of the National Association of Friendship Centres (NAFC).

“I think it aligns so well with our traditions and beliefs,” explains Benning. “The term social economy has more or less given us a name for the way that we conduct ourselves.”

Last week, the inaugural Urban Indigenous Social Economy Forum in Ottawa brought together friendship centres, provincial and federal organizations and Indigenous social organization leadership from across the country to network and share knowledge and expertise.

The forum was funded as part of the Investment Readiness Program, which supports social purpose organizations, like friendship centres.

Social economy is loosely defined as economic activities that prioritize people rather than capital. It’s a model seen at the non-profit level for decades, usually centring around the need to serve a strong social purpose before the need to accumulate profit.

For Édith Cloutier, president of the Val-d’Or Native Friendship Centre, it’s a model based on inclusion, democracy, social justice and solidarity, which mirrors directly the work and mission of Native friendship centres.

The conference was also a place to celebrate social economic initiatives and build the confidence of Indigenous organizations and friendship centres leading the conversation, Benning says.

The forum was organized by NAFC, which represents and supports a network of over 100 Canadian friendship centres that play a pivotal role in urban communities, all with a social-economic lens.

For Shady Hafez, NAFC program manager, a city’s friendship centre is the main hub for urban Indigenous communities. It provides a central place to access services, find community and access culture.

“But also just the enterprises that they own and operate are providing essential services to communities,” Hafez said.

Hafez points to the St. John’s First Light Friendship Centre in Newfoundland, which runs an inn that can house travellers from remote areas who need to access services like health care.

The friendship centre also has dedicated units that offer affordable housing, which allows people to live “steps away from accessing services,” Hafez said. The social enterprise of housing, owned and operated by Indigenous Peoples, ensures that community members don’t have to commute across town for services or worry about facing discrimination from non-Indigenous landlords, Hafez added.

Hafez also looks to the Val-d’Or Native Friendship Centre and the work Cloutier is doing to build a hotel similar to the St. John’s inn.

For Cloutier, a forum keynote speaker, the role of the hotel isn’t just to provide culturally appropriate services and meals or improve the quality of life for Indigenous people in the city, which is a hub for many northern Cree communities. Its other purpose is to tackle issues around racism and discrimination.

It’s why the Val-d’Or Friendship Centre’s restaurant will be open to the public, so anyone in the city can eat culturally influenced foods and learn about First Nations culture in the region, she said. Cloutier also hopes to break down any preconceived prejudices that residents might have against Indigenous Peoples.

“You see, social economy has many layers when we look at it through the lens of friendship centres,” she said.

Cloutier first came in contact with the concept of social economy at a conference in the 1990s. Since then, her work has gravitated toward the model, which allows organizations like friendship centres to “develop services with an economic purpose, but balanced with the same social impact you can have running such a business,” she said, alluding to the hotel and restaurant with a social mission.

It’s also a model that matches the values in teachings from elders in her region. In 2012, Cloutier hosted a retreat on social economy.

Elders told participants the values of “sharing and solidarity” have always been reflected in both the ancestral and modern ways of First Nation Peoples near V’al-d’Or because it’s “how we stayed alive and resilient as a people,” Cloutier said.

Matteo Cimellaro / Canada’s National Observer / Local Journalism Initiative