Indigenous women, Two-Spirit, and gender-diverse entrepreneurs in Alberta are building businesses that carry culture forward. Through beadwork, fashion, storytelling, wellness, and language, they weave Traditional Knowledge (TK) and Traditional Cultural Expressions (TCE) into their work, advancing cultural revitalization alongside economic growth.
Canada’s intellectual property (IP) system rests on Western legal traditions that assume individual ownership, written documentation, and time-limited protection. Indigenous knowledge systems are grounded in communal stewardship, ceremony and protocol, as well as oral transmission and intergenerational responsibility. When TK enters the marketplace, it rubs up against a legal framework that is not designed to recognize it, and that offers little recourse when it is appropriated.
This four-part series by Jacknife Consulting Ltd. examines that gap. Drawing on a literature review and in-depth interviews with Indigenous entrepreneurs and an Indigenous IP specialist, it explores how business owners in Alberta protect their knowledge while honouring community protocols.
Part 1 profiles Indigenous entrepreneurship in Alberta and the place of women-owned businesses within it. Part 2 contrasts Indigenous knowledge systems with Canadian IP frameworks. Part 3 examines the challenges Indigenous women entrepreneurs face and the strategies they use to protect their work. Part 4 offers recommendations for policymakers, Indigenous financial institutions, and business incubators.
Research on Two-Spirit, Indigiqueer, trans, and gender-diverse entrepreneurs remains scarce, so much of what follows centres on women-owned businesses. Naming that gap is part of the work this series hopes to advance.
