Through the Sharing Indigenous Knowledge webinar series, Loyalist College in partnership with Bioenterprise, provides a platform to help raise awareness and understanding related to the valuable role of Indigenous knowledge and entrepreneurship within the current economy.

The second webinar in the series was moderated by Jennifer Tewathahá:kwa Maracle, Loyalist College Director of Indigenous Services, and featured Amberly Quakegesic sharing her journey as the manager of the Guardian program at Wahkohtowin.

The Guardian program is designed to strengthen Indigenous youth’s connections to their land, language, culture and community through land-based learning. 

“We recognize the challenges and opportunities facing our Communities in environmental and resource management. We want to be leaders and changemakers for our Communities. And this starts with our youth. We want to learn our old ways and share knowledge to create innovative environmental solutions. With guidance from our Elders and Cultural Advisors we developed a set of principles to guide our Guardians,” says Quakegesic.

Through the Sharing Indigenous Knowledge webinar series, Loyalist College in partnership with Bioenterprise, provides a platform to help raise awareness and understanding related to the valuable role of Indigenous knowledge and entrepreneurship within the current economy.

The first webinar in the series was moderated by Jennifer Tewathahá:kwa Maracle, Loyalist College Director of Indigenous Services, and featured Jenn Harper, founder of Cheekbone Beauty.

Cheekbone Beauty celebrates Indigenous culture and teachings that place a particular emphasis on the deep connection to nature and the land lived on. This can be seen through Cheekbone Beauty’s focus on using sustainably sourced ingredients and minimal waste packaging.

“As Indigenous people we have an innate connection to the land, earth, and water,” says Jenn Harper. “We use concepts from Indigenous wisdom married with western science to make and create products, and to think of how we’re putting products into the world and how we want to be a part of a new way of doing business. We know our ancestors constantly watched and mimicked nature without wasting anything. As a brand, we can’t mimic nature perfectly, but we do our best to try.”

We invite you to watch the webinar recording to hear more about Cheekbone’s journey and their business model.