Indigenous Business series: Spirit Works

The Indigenous business series brings together voices from majority-owned/controlled (51% or more) Indigenous peoples’ businesses that have worked with UBC, sharing their experiences with UBC’s procurement process. The series aims to support supplier diversity and strengthen inclusion of Indigenous businesses in future opportunities at UBC.

Spirit Works

Spirit Works is an Indigenous-owned creative company that crafts authentic Indigenous art, gifts, and functional pieces rooted in West Coast traditions, and uses its business to support community programming, employment, and cultural advocacy. Spirit works does lots of arts and crafts with UBC which allows them to fund a non profit. They also do medical advocacy, designing an indigenous clinic right now.

Can you share your experience doing business with UBC?

Our experience working with UBC has been very meaningful. Spirit Works has a strong connection to the university since our founder Shain Niniwum Selápem Jackson (shishálh First Nation) attended law school at UBC, and we see our relationship with UBC through the lens of Indigenous people and communities within the institution.

Much of our work with UBC has involved providing Indigenous arts and crafts, particularly corporate and presentation gifts, which creates an opportunity to share Indigenous culture, worldview, and values. We have also spent time speaking with students at UBC, including at the law school, because art is one of the main ways we codify history and communicate our worldview.

How has working with UBC impacted your efforts to achieve your business or community goals?

Working with UBC has been personally meaningful, particularly because of our founder’s connection to the university. While our work with UBC is similar to our work with other institutions, it is especially rewarding to be able to give back through guest lectures and ongoing engagement. The revenue from our corporate gifting work also helps fund our non-profit initiatives, including medical advocacy and the design of a new Indigenous clinic, allowing us to reinvest directly into community wellbeing.

How can UBC improve our Indigenous procurement process? Were there any challenges?

We were not aware that there is a formal Indigenous procurement process at UBC. From our perspective, UBC has simply been another customer. There may be an opportunity for UBC to do more outward communication about its Indigenous procurement initiatives so that Indigenous businesses better understand what supports and pathways are available.

Do you have any advice for people at UBC who want to work with Indigenous Businesses?

We recommend developing supplier lists and doing proactive outreach to Indigenous businesses. It’s important to take time to get to know people, understand who does what, and to reach out every now and then to maintain relationships. Building connections rather than only engaging at the point of purchase can make a big difference.

What advice would you give to Indigenous businesses who want to work with UBC?

For Indigenous businesses interested in working with UBC, we suggest taking time to explore what is already available and connecting with someone in UBC’s Indigenous procurement team to learn more about the opportunities and processes.