Indigevisor Case (Part 1: First encounters with cultural difference and issues of inclusion)

Nadine Bernard is a Mi’kmaw entrepreneur. She is the sole proprietor of Indigevisor, a construction consultancy that helps large corporations develop Indigenous engagement strategies. However, her career path as an entrepreneur, and small business owner, was years in the making. How has her lifetime of experiences in various workplaces led to the creation of Indigevisor?

INTRODUCTION TO NADINE BERNARD

Nadine grew up in We’koqma’q, a Mi’kmaw community in Unama’ki/Cape Breton. She has a strong sense of herself and her community identity. She has always been passionate about sharing Mi’kmaw teachings with others. She believes that:

“Success should be what you leave as a legacy, not the things that you can achieve.”

Nadine is a lifelong learner that doesn’t back down from adversity. She started her career as a university student in the late 1990s as a young mother. In the final year of her degree, she experienced a family tragedy. She was suddenly a single mother with three children to provide for.

BACKGROUND (SYSTEMIC BARRIERS & READINESS)

First encounter with corporate cultures or cultural differences

Nadine initially moved to Sydney believing it would be easier to find a good job. In 2013, she set off to start a new journey in the banking industry. She started her first job as a bank teller. Although she was excited about this new job, she was quickly confronted by cultural differences between she and her co-workers. She was disappointed by a series of difficult encounters with co-workers. She believed these encounters were related to her identifying as an Indigenous person because she utilized the employment equity program. Employment equity programs are government funded strategies. They are intended to encourage businesses to hire people from designated groups identified by the Employment Equity Act of Canada.

Employment equity:

• encourages the establishment of working conditions that are free from barriers
• seeks to correct conditions of disadvantage in employment, and
• promotes the principle that it requires special measures to accommodate differences for the 4 designated groups in Canada

The Employment Equity Act (the Act) identifies the designated groups as:

• women
• Indigenous peoples
• persons with disabilities
• members of visible minorities

There’s a perception that people hired through equity programmes enter job without qualifications or merit. Thinking back to her first job she said,

“I don’t think the staff understood why employment equity programs exist. I don’t believe the staff understood what indigenous inclusion means.”

Confronting bias and cultural differences

She learned more about the corporate strategies that were used to present the company as a culturally diverse. For example, creating positions for designated groups and creating hiring programs that are supposed to help Indigenous people, as employees be successful. Despite these programs, they didn’t have many Indigenous identifying, or visibly diverse employees. There was also a lack of Indigenous role models and/or mentors in the banking and financial sector generally.

As she learned more about equity programs, she became concerned because they failed to address underlying systemic issues. In some cases, positions that were designated for Indigenous identifying people were filled by non-Indigenous individuals. This was concerning to her because, although it wasn’t illegal, it violated the spirit and intention of the employment equity act.

She realized there was a lot of work to be done. There was a need to educate management and staff on the importance of the employment equity act, Indigenous inclusion, Indigenous recruitment, and retention, among other important topics.

Two-Eyed Seeing in Business

Nadine had always been taught to be respectful of others. She was taught to be treat both Elders and people in positions of authority with respect, by listening and not talking back. When she started working in the bank, it was difficult to vocalize or express concerns when she saw them. “And when you’re taught so much about respect and not disrespecting people in authority, it’s hard to go into spaces and challenge the actions of others…”

Nadine had to learn to stand up for herself. She worked with the organization to create an Indigenous inclusion, recruitment, and retention strategies. In the process, she began to wonder how many other organizations needed the same assistance? She later learned equity concerns reached beyond the banking and finance industry.

CONCEPTION OF A NEW IDEA – NETWORKING AND RECONCILIATION

After she left the banking industry, Nadine spent a couple of years working in several roles that were related to indigenous awareness and inclusion. She volunteered on several volunteer boards of directors and partnered with multiple organizations. For example, she sat on the advisory boards of the Police Commission, United Way, Restorative Justice, Pan Cape Breton Food Hub, Transition House Foundation, and Every Woman’s Centre. The work she did on these boards focused mostly on Indigenous inclusion and educating people about Mi’kmaw teachings and culture.

CONCLUSION

Her early career experiences inspired Nadine Bernard to create Indigevisor. Indigevisor is a consultancy company which means she gives advice to other companies about partnerships and Indigenous engagement. Her primary business focus is advising companies who want to partner with Indigenous communities on big development projects but don’t know where to begin and how to approach indigenous partnerships.

Nadine has been through a series of work related and entrepreneurial experiences over the past two decades. How did these experiences contribute to the creation of Indigevisor?