Indigenous group aims to help small businesses thrive in the digital economy – Capital Current
March 20, 2026
Ashley-Rose Machendagoos, an Ojibway woman who sells beaded earrings and beading kits, says she struggles with all the technology required to have an online store.
“I know there’s YouTube videos and whatever, but … I would rather talk to a person and be like, ‘okay, am I doing this right?’” said Machendagoos, whose online business is called Zhawenim Designs from the Ojibway word for “unconditional love.”
“Because even with my Shopify site, that’s something that I had somebody helping me with boxing up my stuff and saying, ‘okay, this is what you need to do here. And I learned better that way,” said Machendagoos, who lives in Wahnapitae, Ont., east of Sudbury.
