TIMMINS, ON — A 19-year-old member of Animbiigoo Zaagi'gan Anishinaabek, a First Nation located on Highway 11 in the Beardmore area, has found early success as a businessperson.
Kaden Kanakakeesic recently won the Youth Entrepreneur of the Year award in the Nishnawbe Aski Development Fund's annual business competition.
Kanakakeesic taught himself to make hand-made knives, and turned that skill into a small home-based business called Sioux Knives.
According to a news release from NADF, he established the business while still attending school, and received his high school diploma last June.
With a grant from Summer Company, he was able to buy new equipment and tools for his workshop, where a combination of heat, hammering and effort forges one-of-a-kind knives.
The young man recently appeared on camera for UpRiver Media Inc. to showcase his skills, and he will be seen in a Summer Company ad to be released across Ontario next month.
Sioux Knives are made, assembled and finished in Sioux Lookout.
Agoke Development Corp. wins Partnership of the Year
The other area recipient of an NADF award is the Agoke Development Corporation.
The First Nations-owned and operated forestry enterprise manages the Ogoki Forest, including oversight of access road maintenance and silviculture programs.
NADF executive-director Brian Davey said companies that receive this award have achieved a major accomplishment, adding that it happens through "the willingness of partners to come together for the greater good."
Agoke is owned by Aroland, Eabametoong and Marten Falls First Nations.
Bill Spade, who represents Eabametoong, said the award "shows the importance of collaboration and a common vision of partnerships."
S[ade noted that Agoke took time to build key relationships with area mills, and that effort paid off with a joint-venture agreement with the owner of the Nakina sawmill to restart the dormant operation.
The deal includes a goal of 75 per cent Aboriginal employment in the mill.
NADF is a not-for-profit Aboriginal financial institution serving entrepreneurs, businesses and communities in northern Ontario.
It offers a variety of services to support Aboriginal business and economic development, including financing, business support, community planning, and workshops and bookkeeping training.
Davey called the awards NADF's "highlight" of the year, saying the nominations are different each year, but "they all pivot around the same mantra: Aboriginal Prosperity."
