© The Purdy Crawford Chair in Aboriginal Business Studies

Cape Breton University

Contact: Dr. Mary Beth Doucette

Indexing and Forward Notes.

NOTES for a forward: The concepts were organized with the financial support of the Province of Nova Scotia. They were formatted to compliment the accompanying Cases. The concepts highlight L’nu words, teachings, and context of Mi’kmaw in Nova Scotia, however given the political relationships that exist between l’nu and the Federal Government, they also describe influences of broad reaching Indigenous -Canada discourses.

The cases were developed with support of Dr. Tasha Richard (Dal, Ag. Campus), and students Victoria Dimmek, MSc. and Ester Alu BBA. Nicole Cammeart (BA).

Each of the cases was produced with permission of the Entrepreneurs profiled.

They cannot be changed without the permission of the Entrepreneur.

The teaching notes present recommendations for instructors using the cases, they are guidelines and can and should be altered for the context.

About the Crawford Chair

Principles the guide the work

Mainstream business planning processes that are the base of Entrepreneurship literature, these planning processes to date have had limited engagement with Indigenous perspectives of business (Bastienne et al, 2020; Hrenick & Salmon, 2023). Since the establishment of the Purdy Crawford Chair there has been an increasing network of Indigenous scholars supporting the reconciliation efforts of business curriculum to Indigenize and Decolonize University programming for Business schools in Canada. The work of the Government of Nova Scotia to support this work and by changing the public school curricula is notable in this context.

Embracing Mi’kmaw identity and Ways of Being and Knowing into business planning is an opportunity to honour the wisdom of the L’nu culture and to explore how it can be utilized and operationalized in a business context. The following 9 concept papers are primers to help think through some ways Mi’kmaw identity might influence Mi’kmaw entrepreneurs.