Three things companies can do to respectfully collaborate with Indigenous artists

There was a tangible buzz as the capsule collaboration between Nehiyaw (Plains Cree) designer, Justin Jacob Louis of Section 35 , and the Canadian brand, Roots , came down the runway during the Indigenous Fashion Arts (IFA) Festival last week. The black, beige, and tan bomber jacket and leather bag emblazoned with the phrase in all caps “ALL MY RELATIONS” was the must-have item in the Indigenous Marketplace and has nearly sold out on Roots’ online and retail shops. 



Louis’ partnership with Roots was brokered by the Indigenous Fashion Arts organization, which has held the IFA Festival biannually since 2018. “We contacted Roots. They wanted to partner and work with one of our designers,” says Sage Paul (Urban Denesuliné ), Indigenous Fashion Arts’ Executive and Artistic Director. “They said that they have production here in Canada and would produce it. Justin [Louis] would just have to design it.” 



Sage Paul [Photo: Nadya Kwandibens/ Red Works Photography ]



“Partnerships like this are essential to ensuring the IFA Festival can continue,” says Paul. These partnerships provide an opportunity for Indigenous designers to access bigger platforms and higher funding for sharing their work and their stories with authenticity. “Justin’s designs, which are based on his Native Land, pushes back against that idea of Canadian identity,” says Paul. “And yet, Roots were willing to move forward with it, which impressed me.”



The IFA Festival represents the deep collaboration between Indigenous nations and tribes—relationships that were established through trade lines and treaties that existed before European colonization in 1492. The 2024 Festival brought together 25 Indigenous designers on the runway and 70 Indigenous vendors across Turtle Island (i.e. lands claimed as Canada, the United States, and Mexico) as well as Central and South America. Yet, IFA and other Indigenous fashion festivals represent an opportunity for all peoples to develop the understanding and appreciation for Indigenous arts that can lead to respectful collaboration between Indigenous brands and non-Indigenous companies.



At the Festival, I interviewed five Indigenous/Native artists—Sage Paul, Jennifer Younger, Lesley Hampton, Wanda Nanibush, and Angel Aubichon—on what companies need to do to respectfully collaborate with Indigenous artists. While their views cannot represent the over 1,000 Indigenous/Native nations in just Canada and the United States alone, each offered perspectives on three things companies can do to better partner with Indigenous artists:



1. Have the humility to just ask



2. Get into alignment with Indigenous values



3. Share your platform and profits



Have the Humility to Ask 



Humility requires that companies give up their sense of superiority and entitlement to approach Indigenous artists as equals. The first step is for companies to ask for collaboration instead of stealing ideas and artistic motifs (i.e. cultural appropriation). A good example of reconciliation  efforts has been Minnetonka footwear’s addressing their seventy years of appropriation of Native American designs by hiring an Indigenous reconciliation advisor, formally apologizing, and making amends by collaborating with Native designers and communities.  



“If a company would like to make amends with Indigenous people in our communities, there needs to be a lot of humility in approaching that relationship. I think there needs to be a willingness to share spaces. And it’s not even just making space at their own table, but coming to our spaces and our festivals, which are very different from a fashion week,” says Paul. 



Jennifer Younger



Humility means that non-Indigenous companies need to be the ones to reach out to communities. “I would love to see people seeking out Native designers and creators, supporting them, and wanting to share their work,” says Jennifer Younger (Tlingit of the Eagle Kaagwaantaan clan), a carver, jewelry designer, and entrepreneur. “I think the big thing is non-Native people are unsure and don’t ask. I’d like to convey that it is okay to just ask. And this is where we can start to feel respected.” 



Get in Alignment with Indigenous Values



Indigenous relationships as the land , where the land and the people are one, represent values distinct from that of many companies, whose profits come from exploiting the land. Principled values, such as the Haudenosaunee Seven Generations , in which decisions should be based on how they would affect seven generations and not immediate self-interests, are living practices that form the basis of any relationship for collaboration.



Angel Aubichon



“I’m not a traditional collaborator in the organized sense. I do what I call intuitive innovation,” says Angel Aubichon ( Peepeekisis Cree Nation and Métis), co-founder and CEO of Indi City adornments. “I feel that in fashion, designers and creatives are tapped into a channel of creativity. We’re in love with design. We’re tapping into our creativity. We’re channeling our ancestors and the vibration of the planet. We have to feel to create and channel stories and design. Collaboration is about who is vibrationally aligned with me right now. Whose work is sparking joy in my creative process and how can I add to their creation in a collaborative way to add to that?” 



Wanda Nanibush [Photo: Nadya Kwandibens/ Red Works Photography ]



Yet even when the vibe is aligned, the challenges of reconciling Indigenous value systems and the mainstream fashion industry are recognized. “We are trying to both create the market and bend the market to the [Indigenous] value systems at the same time that allow people to continue to make things from where they live on the Rez and where the inspiration comes from. Indigenous people don’t want to destroy the earth,” says Wanda Nanibush ( Anishinaabe -kwe from Beausoleil First Nation of the Wolf Clan), a writer, curator, and artist. “They don’t want to pollute the water. They don’t want to do all these things, and they still want to make a living. So every time they try to enter into contracts with larger companies, this value system ends up clashing because large companies want a thousand of these things, not the twenty that I can do really well with my hands.”  



Share Your Platform and the Profits



At the center of decolonization is the willingness of European settlers and their descendants to share the land back with Indigenous peoples. Companies who are experiencing the most success in collaboration with Indigenous artists are sharing both their platforms and their profits, not just with individual artists, but also with their communities.



Lesley Hampton



“Successful collaboration with Indigenous designers is putting them in decision making sections, and not just an artistic collaboration. It is having the Indigenous person be a part of all the deciding factors when it comes to not only the creation and design of the piece, but also the marketing of the piece and the collaboration, and then also the future of the collaboration,” says  Leslie Hampton (Anishinaabe of Temagami First Nation ), an artist and fashion designer. “We kind of see that with the Naiomi Glasses ’ (Diné Navajo) collaboration with Ralph Lauren where it wasn’t just a one off. That’s really inspiring as opposed to a token moment where it’s a one and done in June during Indigenous Heritage Month.” 



Ralph Lauren’s collaboration with Naiomi Glasses sold out in its first run. It’s proof that through respectful collaboration, both Indigenous communities and companies can mutually benefit. 



“If someone is hoping to partner with us, and particularly to benefit from it financially, I think they should be willing to be upfront about giving those profits to those Indigenous people that they’re working with, so we can continue to build infrastructure and our industry,” says Paul. “We do this [Indigenous fashion arts] because we have to. If we don’t continue our practices and to create space in ways that are relevant for us today, maybe we won’t have these practices anymore.”