BCBusiness

G rowing up in northern B.C., Teara Fraser had a rather limited hori- zon. The family bounced from town to town, and her single mother from job to job (her Métis father died when she was three). Fraser left Quesnel for Vancouver at age 20—with no high school diploma, little money and even fewer pros- pects. "I said to myself, If I stay in this small town, with life the way it is, what possible opportunities can I make for myself?" Arriving in the big city, Fraser took on a variety of entry-level jobs as an admin- istrative assistant and then became a Save-On-Foods clerk. Along the way, she had two kids, all on her own. The hand-to-mouth struggle grew more daunting. "When I look back, it's hard to believe how you can make things hap- pen," says Fraser, founder and CEO of Iskwew Air, Canada's Žrst 100-percent Indigenous- woman-owned airline, from her home in Delta. One day, as she approached her 30th birthday, Fraser came upon a book while search- ing the self-help section of Chapters. "The book's advice was to write yourself a list of the things you wanted to do in your life," Fraser recalls. "The Žrst thing I wrote was 'Go to Africa.' I'd never been any- where." She saved for almost a year, and then, in October 2001, took o– for Žve weeks in Africa (leaving her children, then two and seven, with family). It was there—on an aerial tour of the Okavango Delta in Botswana—that she real- ized she wanted to be a pilot: "I suddenly wanted to know everything about what was in the cockpit, to touch every- thing, to know how everything worked." Within a year of returning to Vancouver, Fraser had obtained her commercial pilot's licence. From there, her career took o–. Fraser worked for a handful of small charter opera- tors and piloted for Terrace- based Hawk Air. By 2010, she had saved enough money to launch her Žrst business, Kisik Aerial Survey. "At that point, I'd decided I'd made lots of sacriŽces with my family, and I didn't want to be away as much," Fraser says. She ran Kisik for six years before selling the company in 2016. Fraser contemplated leaving the industry post-sale, but ultimately decided she still had Žre in her belly. "When I look at Kisik and what made that succeed, I lead di–erently," she says. "I build a place where people want to work, where people are invested." This March, Iskwew Air made its inaugural œight out of YVR's South Terminal. So far, the charter operation has been a modest a–air—just one plane, a Piper Navajo, and four employees (including Fraser and her daughter, Kiana Alexander)—though Fraser has ambitions to expand the focus and seize upon the burgeoning Indigenous tourism market. "People are interested in an authentic experience that connects them with the land and the history of that land," she says. Iskwew is the Cree word for woman—and for Fraser, the time is right for female entrepreneurs: "The world needs more matriarchal leader- ship. More women in leader- ship. And leadership from an Indigenous world view, where our leaders are connected with what matters." She tries to nurture that leadership through the Raven Institute, an organization she runs with Kiana to help develop teams and organizations from an Indigenous perspective. And as if those two enter- prises weren't enough, this spring Fraser launched Give Them Wings, a not-for-proŽt program that introduces Indigenous youth to potential careers in aviation. "What I want to be able to do is liberate possibilities for others, like I did for myself," she says. For the next generation of Indig- enous Canadians, she hopes, the sky will be the limit. As Far as the Eye Can See How a trip to Africa—and an indomitable spirit—helped Teara Fraser to launch a pioneering new airline by Matt O'Grady I T ' S A G O OD T H I NG ( quality time ) 114 BCBUSINESS JULY/AUGUST 2019 FLYING HIGH Fraser's Iskwew Air started operating out of YVR this year State of the Nations A 2018 survey of Indigenous business owners in B.C. by Vancity, done in partnership with the Canadian Council for Aboriginal Business, included these findings: MORE THAN 90% OF SURVEY RESPONDENTS SAID THEIR OPERATIONS HAVE BEEN SUC- CESSFUL TO DATE, WITH 5% CALLING THEM "EXTREMELY" OR "VERY" SUCCESSFUL More than 40% said their business had clients in other Canadian provinces and territories during the past year, while 20% said they had clients outside Canada and the U.S. S O U R C E : F I R S T P E O P L E S, F I R S T B U S I N E S S : I N D I G E N O U S E N T R E P R E N E U R S A N D R E C O N C I L I AT I O N I N B .C . INDIGENOUS TOURISM–RELATED BUSINESSES IN B.C. INCREASED 33% BETWEEN 2014 AND 2016 B.C. ranks 2nd among the provinces (after Ontario) for number of self-employed Indigenous workers, accounting for of the national total

• Cover