After emerging as one of this year’s Pow Wow Pitch winners, an entrepreneur with Fort Providence roots is preparing for fashion shows in New York and Japan.
Pow Wow Pitch is a competition that supports and highlights Indigenous-led businesses.
British Columbia-based Wendy Landry-Braun, a member of Deh Gáh Got’ı̨ę First Nation, entered the competition’s food and drink category with Bebia Cho Foods Co – a company built around her apple chips product and aimed at improving food security in northern and isolated communities.
Landry-Braun advanced through multiple rounds to secure second place overall, earning $10,000 for her business. She was also nominated for the Kelowna Chamber of Commerce Indigenous Business of the Year award.
Since her win, Landry-Braun said her social media posts have reached nearly a million views and she has received messages of support from across Canada.
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She called her final pitch “the longest but fastest moments of my life,” adding: “We haven’t even been launched for even a year yet. It’s crazy.”
Landry-Braun will be working backstage at Vancouver Indigenous Fashion Week.
Her clothing line, which she runs with her daughter, began with a single orange t-shirt designed to honour Landry-Braun’s grandfather and residential school survivors. The shirt features a bear logo she created with no words, intended as a conversation starter around the Every Child Matters message.
The clothing line recently debuted at International Indigenous Fashion Week in Regina. Since then, she has received invitations to showcase her work in New York, Calgary, Palm Springs and Tokyo, and she will take a group of First Nations models she scouted in Regina to New York in February.
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She credits her work to the guidance of Dene laws and teachings and wants the business to reflect her cultural roots while meeting community needs.
Landry-Braun is collaborating with the Lake Country Food Bank and Peter’s Independent Grocer, which has secured funding to send chips up north for free. She aims to slowly expand her healthy snacks business to communities in the NWT, especially in the Dehcho region, and Nunavut.
While shipping has been a challenge due to the recent Canada Post strike, she said partnerships are being arranged to ensure the program can continue to reach remote communities.
