That is a fantastic question and I appreciate your asking that. It is such a delight to meet you. Thank you, cousin.
This is most certainly a very difficult question to answer because there are so many nuances involved in it. If I kind of take a step back and think about my own journey as an indigenous woman within the tourism industry, I had probably one of the most difficult journeys of my entire life in trying to get funding. I worked very hard to do all the right things. I ended up having some support from what was back then called Aboriginal Business Canada. It was a very small amount of money. They offered, I believe, 70% of the grant money and I had to provide 30%. In order to do that, I was expected to get a loan from the bank.
I was refused seven times, even with an absolutely outstanding business plan that was written and provided by Aboriginal Business Canada at the time. They found somebody who could do a good business plan for me. I really was not very high risk, but I really had to work hard to try to establish myself as a credible person who was going to be able to carry this out.
Over time, it feels like you're just being chipped away at and chipped away at. You go through all of these hard things and then you're faced with this absolute monster called “marketing”. As an aboriginal or indigenous woman, that is a word that we just simply, truly don't understand in terms of how we are to procure all of these clients, especially overseas, when we're told, “Oh my God, Germany is going to fall all over itself for you.” It certainly doesn't happen.
I kind of feel that the ball has really been dropped, not only with the financial aspect of it, but also with all of the other supports that we require to educate ourselves enough to be able to understand how to move forward in a business.
One of the things we're working on with Indigenous Tourism Alberta is something called the “six senses” program, which is absolutely magical. It is providing that support for entrepreneurs, along with some excellent mentors who've been there and done that.