Caitlin Wemigwans grew up in Northern Ontario with little connection to her Anishinaabe roots. She spent most of her time with her mother’s side of the family who are of Irish descent. Wemigwans says her mother would sometimes take her to Pow Wows, but without a deep understanding of or connection to her spirituality, her early exposures to Indigenous culture made her feel more like a spectator, rather than an active participant in her community. Upon moving to Toronto, Wemigwans began to see a traditional healer who helped her discover her spirit name and colours, and she was inspired to integrate her heritage into her burgeoning design business.
In 2020, Wemigwans launched Pre&Peri, a locally-made streetwear brand featuring motifs inspired by woodland art, nature, traditional teachings and dreams. The company name is fitting for a brand that merges pre-colonial Indigenous traditions with current “peri-colonial,” everyday life. The motifs featured on the clothing are designed by Wemigwans herself, and serve as interpretations and expressions of her ongoing search for connections with her heritage, told through an urban Indigenous lens. With her designs, Wemigwans aims to celebrate the rediscovery of past traditions that have been lost to many First Nations.
As a small business owner trying to produce her product locally, Wemigwans faced a number of operational and financial hurdles, but she says one of the most difficult obstacles she faced was a lack of educational resources. During the early days of her business, Wemigwans spent a great deal of time Googling to find solutions to the challenges she was facing in her business. “I don’t see a lot of write ups out there about Indigenous fashion business or made in Canada clothing, it’s getting a lot more popular, people want it more, but there [are] still so many struggles […] it was difficult to even find those types of resources,” says Wemigwans. So, she was thrilled when she came across the Racialized and Indigenous Supports for Entrepreneurs (RAISE) program. RAISE is a provincially-funded, comprehensive grant initiative that supports Indigenous, Black, and other racialized entrepreneurs in Ontario who are on the road to starting or scaling their businesses. In addition to grant funding, the program provides entrepreneurs with access to business development training, business coaching, and culturally responsive support services through the Parkdale Centre for Innovation’s Early Stage Entrepreneurship Program.
Wemigwans says the educational modules she worked through during the RAISE program were invaluable. “I generally gravitate more toward creative kind of stuff […] so I, unfortunately, have a little bit of a blinder up for things like finances, but [the program] made me listen to some things that I needed to hear,” she says. One of Wemigwans key take-aways was that she was discounting her product more than she needed to. Her Parkdale Centre advisors counseled her to scale back on the frequency and size of discounts on her clothing, and reassured her that if customers wanted her product they would buy it at full price. “I did drop the discounts,” says Wemigwans “and I don’t think it hurt me at all.”
The grant funds Wemigwans received were invested primarily in grassroots marketing. “Markets are the best for me,” she says “some people do really well online, but when […] you can engage with people [face-to-face] they start to feel more of a connection to the brand and to the project.” On a personal level, Wemigwans is also using this grassroots approach to building her business as a way to network with people in the Toronto Indigenous community and to forge stronger bonds. Notably, Wemigwans has connected with a number of other Indigenous female entrepreneurs by attending in-person events like markets. “We’re all just trying to figure it out and, thankfully, now there are people I can talk to and we can start to figure it out together,” she says.
Last September, Wemigwans spoke at a fashion showcase in honour of Truth & Reconciliation day. As a young mother, she said this was her proudest moment and the biggest success to come out of her work with the RAISE program. Not only has Wemigwans connected with members of the Indigenous community, she has also become a leader within it and a model of the rich heritage she now is an active participant in.
