Holly Spence: Building Manitoba's Indigenous Tourism Industry

Indigenous Tourism Manitoba's work runs in two directions at once: on one side, indigenous business owners who need support getting market ready, connected to funders, and connected to each other. On the other, a public that often can't name a single indigenous-owned business. As CEO, Holly Spence has spent her career building the links on both sides, work she ties directly to what reconciliation actually requires.

We're talking:

• Holly's own experience learning to walk between two systems, from Peguis First Nation to the city, and what that taught her about the barriers other business owners face
• A persistent myth about who pays taxes, and what the numbers actually show
• Tourism as a form of self-determination: who controls the story determines who profits from it
• Her case for why indigenous-led tourism might be the strongest driver of reconciliation in the province

Holly also talks about what it took to get here, including a system that wouldn't count $400,000 in business equipment as collateral because it sat on reserve land. But the throughline of the conversation is bigger than her own path: it's about who gets to tell the story of a place, and who profits when they do.

Learn more about Indigenous Tourism Manitoba