b'FOOD & CULTUREattract people to purchase them. Weproducts are being used to promote could use your designs as a Tlingit artistIndigenous artists, the most important from Kwanlin Dn First Nation. aspect for her is that she is creating and selling a product that educates This was the impetus that led NaganoCanadians about Indigenous cultures to her coffee business concept and theand history. I needed a platform for idea of promoting Indigenous artistseducation. I needed a place where we and culture through the packaging andcould share and celebrate Indigenous sale of coffee, with Preston receivingstories through a delicious, small batch royalties from each bag sold. The artistof coffee, she says.also created a QR code that would direct Gina Naganos First Peoples Coffee aims tocustomers tohis website.ByaccessingtheQRcodeson connect coffee drinkers to Indigenous culture theuniquelydesignedpackaging, With that, First Peoples Coffee was born.consumers can read the profiles of While Nagano is proud that her coffeeIndigenous artists involved in the design WHEN YOUR COMPANY to find a way to do that, she says. Ive been in a policing career for 21 years withGENERATES JOBSthe RCMP and travelled across Canada and Indigenous communities. One ofAND PROSPERITYthe things I noticed was a lack of educa-tion for many Canadians [regarding]IN YOUR COMMUNITYknowledge of First Nations people or Indigenous peoples culture, language and stories.Nagano included herself in this cate-gory, as she didnt learn about her own culture until much later in life. My mother married my father who was not First Nation, so she lost her status and was disconnected from our community. I didnt learn about our own history, our own culture, and what happened to our people until I was 37 years old, she explains. And if thats me, being First Nations, how many [more] of our own people dont know the true history of our people and what happened through colonization impacts? Take on more international contracts with confidence:Nagano tried to figure out a way to help Get access to more working capital through your financial institutioneducate Canadians about Indigenous Ensure you get paid by your international customerscultures in a manner that people every-Access international business expertisewhere could relate to and enjoy. ThenLearn how your Indigenous business can go global with support from EDC.one day, it hit her while sitting with her friend and Tlingit artist, the late MarkVisit edc.ca/indigenous-businessPreston. Im a big coffee connoisseur, I just love my coffee, she says. And I had been thinking for many years about how to share stories in a good wayI thought, Oh my God, this is it. Im going to use coffee as the conversation. So, I said to Mark, Lets design coffee bags that will Aboriginal BUSINESS REPORT 55'