Canada’s Economy Can Be Grown If Indigenous Innovation Is Enabled and Encouraged

Think about snowshoes, canoes, igloos, longhouses, red river carts, rat root, acetylsalicylic acid, Inuk snow googles, Mayan pyramids, syringes, and bunk beds. These are all examples of Indigenous innovation that developed over thousands of years. Indigenous research, inventions and innovations have been catalysts for new medicines, new crop varieties, tools, social systems and practices. If Indigenous-led research and innovation are enabled and encouraged, they could be the source of significant new economic growth for Indigenous peoples’ and Canada’s future. 

In their 2023 article in the Globe and Mail, authors Silcoff and O’Kane lamented the long-term potential of AI-fueled economic growth for Canada. Their storyline focused on innovation and the missed opportunities of failing to commercialize research knowledge. An indication of Canada’s lag in the innovation space can be measured by the lack of patents and their utilization of them. Compared with other countries, Canada’s patent pipeline has fallen behind. Moreover, government innovation strategies “have typically failed to leverage the country’s brains to produce economic growth.”

This sentiment is echoed by other people and organizations. Canada has lost its way regarding innovation. Our nation scores a C on The Conference Board of Canada’s Innovation Report Card, ranking 15th among 20 countries. Of the twenty-one innovation indicators, Canada scores below average on fourteen of the indicators. Canada ranks 15th in the 2023 Global Innovation Index (GII), and “innovation outputs have not improved”. 

Inclusive Indigenous Innovation 

Times are changing in Canada and new attitudes are taking hold in the wake of Reconciliation. We are moving from a history of exclusionary practices, legislation and government policies that prevented Indigenous people from fully participating in the education, political and economic spheres. Mary Beth Doucette, Assistant Professor and Purdy Crawford Chair at the Shannon School of Business at Cape Breton University, stated: “Until the last few decades, Indigenous people were isolated from post-secondary institutions, and the research community tended to conduct research on Indigenous people rather than with them. Today, we need to grow more Indigenous business and research talent from the current estimate of 10 Indigenous business PhDs in Canada and only a handful of Research Chairs to 100 times this number.”

Today, Canada’s post-secondary community, researchers, granting agencies and governments are looking at the role that innovation can play in building our economy. What strategies can be developed to ensure that Canada’s brainpower can be harnessed in an inclusive way? How do we enable and encourage Indigenous innovation, and what could be the benefits to our economy and our society as a whole? 

There are three benefits to innovation that rise to the top for Canada and for First Nations, Métis and Inuit. Indigenous innovation has the potential to impact the future economy in varied ways.

1. Reduce inequities by strengthening Indigenous Peoples and their economies. If the gap in opportunities for Indigenous communities across Canada were closed, it would result in an increase in GDP of $27.7 billion annually or a boost of about 1.5% to Canada’s economy. This would fundamentally shift Canada from its current deficit approach to Indigenous development and capacity building to that of an asset-based policy paradigm.

2. Indigenous people are the stewards of vast areas of land and water throughout Canada. Their stewardship of these lands and resources will require science and the application of traditional Indigenous knowledge to research inquiry. Collaborating with Indigenous people will be the biggest boon to research that has yet to be experienced by Canada’s education and business communities, stimulating and attracting billions of dollars of new research and business development for Canada.

3. The marriage of traditional Indigenous knowledge to Western research knowledge and methodologies has the potential to position Canada as a global leader in many new and emerging disciplines. Further applications of Indigenous thought into new driving technologies such as AI will also result in new research and innovation differentiators for Canada and for Indigenous Peoples in areas such as health, the environment, energy, technology and carbon economies.

The arguments for Indigenous innovation are compelling, but how do we create on-the-ground strategies and mechanisms to encourage and enable Indigenous innovation? How can innovation policy create impact at the practitioner level and at the Indigenous community level, where economies are being built one business at a time? 

A First Move

Enter Luminary, a new Indigenous-led initiative that will harness research and innovation to generate jobs, improve well-being and transform our economies. This first-of-its-kind Indigenous-led initiative will facilitate and coordinate new collaborations among Indigenous businesses and organizations, business schools, research agencies, academic researchers, NGOs and the private sector.

Luminary will generate economic benefits, increase innovation outputs and contribute to improvements in Canada’s rankings in the Global Innovation Index by growing an Indigenous innovation tsunami. 

Luminary was recently announced as one of 24 organizations to be awarded funding from the Strategic Science Fund (SSF) Competition at Innovation, Science and Economic Development (ISED). Luminary has been awarded $4M from 2024 to 2029, and these seed funds are strategic for the heavy lifting ahead. Luminary’s plan is also to generate additional funds from the private sector, academic sector, foundations and other public partners. The idea of Luminary is to bring an institutional and programmatic agenda to advance and shape an Indigenous innovation eco-system agenda and a grassroots and partnership-based strategy. 

In 2019, Dr Manley Begay delivered a keynote speech to business and academic leaders focused on how to grow Indigenous-led research collaborations to transform the Indigenous and Canada’s economies. In 2020, 150 Luminary Charter Partners signed on to a call to action. These Partners included more than 70 business schools and academic institutions, over 50 Indigenous businesses and organizations and more than 20 NGOs. In 2021, Dr. Marie Delorme and Kelly Lendsay facilitated national online gatherings to co-create the Luminary Strategic Plan and address the engagement gap with programs and services that would best support partners. 

From 2021 to 2023, Luminary received funding support from INTACT and attracted project funding from Nutrien, Agriculture Canada and the Protein Industry Council to examine Indigenous agrifood business innovation, sparked in part by the food security issues caused by the pandemic. A bold innovation project, “Building an Indigenous Seaweed Industry for Canada,” was initiated with generous funding support from the McConnell Foundation. Other sectoral priorities were explored with business schools and Indigenous business communities, including climate change technologies, carbon markets, artificial intelligence and energy systems. A forum with First Nations University of Canada examined how best to design the “Lab2Market” concept in Indigenous communities. Indigenous Masters and PhD students also outlined their career and education journeys and their perspectives on how to accelerate talent growth.

The Luminary SSF Project initiative is addressing the innovation gap in the Indigenous economic domain and is focusing its efforts on Canadian business schools, institutions, academic researchers and the Indigenous business community. 

Over the next five years, we will focus on three key outcomes:

i) Grow more Indigenous business student and research talent by indigenizing curriculum and integrating real-time Indigenous business pedagogy and achievements into Canadian business schools.

ii) Increase knowledge, capacity and competencies among all the participating partners to advance the Indigenous innovation ecosystem.

iii) Create more research and innovation collaborations focused on Indigenous economic priorities, resulting in new economic and social benefits.

The Deans of university and college business schools are key partners, and many have become members of the Luminary Business School Council. Janet Segato, Dean of the Southern Alberta Institute of Technology School of Business, organized a Luminary workshop in 2023 on “Indigenizing the business school curriculum.” Dr. Detlev Zwick, Dean at the Schulich School of Business, and Luminary are advancing a pilot project in 2024 to increase Indigenous business school participation in MBA capstone projects in Canada and around the world. These pilot projects will guide Luminary in creating cost-effective programs and services that generate economies of scale and reduce development time while maintaining meaningful impact.

Ernie Daniels, President of First Nations Finance Authority (FNFA), in celebrating a new milestone in 2024 with $2 Billion invested into First Nation economic priorities, stated that “Luminary will support and advance new Indigenous-led research and innovation collaborations to examine new and emerging economic issues in housing, water, climate change and food security. The commercialization of research can generate economic benefits and will help to inform FNFA’s long-term investment strategy.” 

Towards More Inclusive Innovation Policies and Strategies

Canada’s Indigenous people have a long history of innovation, experience and expertise borne from the need for adaptation, survival and resilience. However, Canadian policies towards Indigenous people have been highly exclusionary in the last century and have prevented and discouraged Indigenous growth of their own economies and well-being. These policies have obstructed Indigenous participation in the larger Canadian economy. 

Looking forward, Canada needs to adopt more inclusive innovation policies which contribute to sustainable gains and competitively position Indigenous Peoples and Canada for new leadership roles in the global economy. This aptly describes Luminary’s institutional and programmatic agenda to advance and shape an Indigenous innovation ecosystem.

Innovation policies need to be inclusive, meaning they need to put in the forefront First Nation’s, Métis and Inuit socio-economic interests and priorities. Dr Frank Bastien, PhD at the Gustavson School of Business at the University of Victoria, states, “We must go beyond the cosmetic side of Indigenization; Luminary will create new knowledge networks with business schools and Indigenous business which in turn will lead to new research collaborations.”

Inclusive innovation also means recognizing that a level playing field has not existed in the past, so new mechanisms and systems are needed to enable Indigenous organizations and businesses to build their own research agendas, choosing what to research, leading research partnerships and commercializing research knowledge to drive new value creation and improve well-being. Rebecca Jamieson, President of Six Nations Polytechnic, believes that Indigenous innovation will create new models, approaches and solutions, and will connect clusters of like-minded leaders on various sectoral issues. Initiatives like Luminary are needed to bring new capacity and support to Indigenous academic institutions because  Indigenous academic institutions are typically underfunded.   

Luminary will engage and collaborate with its partners to fundamentally retool the Indigenous research and innovation ecosystem. New engagement strategies among Canada’s business schools, academic community and Indigenous businesses can accelerate Indigenous-led research and innovation. 

Apart from the obvious benefits to First Nation’s, Métis and Inuit economies, there will also be larger socio-economic benefits to Canada, helping close the parity gaps with Indigenous peoples and shifting policy deficits to add strength to Canada’s and Indigenous goals. 

Indigenous research, inventions and innovations have been practiced for thousands of years. When Indigenous-led research and innovation is enabled and encouraged, it will be a source of significant new economic growth for Indigenous peoples’ and Canada’s future. This will be transformative for Indigenous people and for Canada.