A student at Sakewew High School has earned third place at the Aboriginal Youth Idea Challenge in Saskatoon.
Josephine Awasis, a North Battleford resident and member of Thunderchild First Nation completing an upgrade year at Sakewew, won a prize of $500 for her idea called Pawata Designs.
Her business idea was motivated by her desire to honour her First Nation heritage. It was an “apparel and beaded accessory line” and “it’s just really inspired by Cree culture and mainly Cree syllabics. I just really want to promote a healthy lifestyle while keeping the traditions and culture alive.”
Awasis described Cree syllabics as “one of the first forms of written language that the First Nation people use.” It’s also something not many people are learning about, so she “really wanted to keep it going, pass it on to younger generations.”
Awasis got involved in the competition through her schoolwork. She is studying entrepreneurship as an elective, and “then when I started getting into the classes, I started getting into it and really wanting to know more, and it escalated from there. I started thinking of business ideas and things I could do, causes I could help.”
Her teacher, Reid Stewart, told her about the Aboriginal Youth Idea Challenge and the workshops that would entail. However, Awasis said “he never really told us about the big gala at the end where you’d have to present your business.”
That proved to be intense. There were eight workshops held during the week at the Brett Wilson Centre in Saskatoon. There the students learned about making and putting together a business plan and then submitting it.
From there, six people who had attended two or more of the workshops, were chosen to make a presentation to judges on the final day Feb. 27, at the Hilton Garden Inn.
Awasis had to give a five-minute pitch of her business idea and then answer questions for five minutes in front of five judges. She had to present her plan on how she would produce her products, get the capital to start up and describe the financials.
“The five minutes to pitch were the longest five minutes of my life,” admits Awasis.
She compared it to what participants on Dragon’s Den go through.
“It was really nerve wracking.”
Fortunately, her family had made the trip there to give her moral support.
Stewart and others at Sakewew were pretty excited when they heard of Awasis’s success. The $500 prize goes towards the startup capital of her budding business.
“That really helped out in getting product and the other things that I need,” Awasis said.
Awasis is planning to continue her education and keep building her business.
Awasis is still in the process of designing some of the product line and getting a few T-shirts and bunnyhugs made, and is really focused on promotion at the moment.
The next step after this will be to start selling her product line to the public. She’s made a number of prototypes for her family to wear and has been working on different styles of beadwork, “trying to get lots out there,” she said.
Awasis had been considering going into teaching, but after this experience she is also considering more of a business direction and enrolling at North West College.
All in all, she is proud of her accomplishments with Pawata Designs.
“I’m really happy and proud of it, and my family has been awesome in supporting me,” said Awasis.
“I’m really happy that I’m finding a way to promote my culture and the things that I want to keep alive in it.”
You can learn more about her business at https://www.facebook.com/pawatadesigns.
