Happy International Women's Day! It's not easy decolonizing the sky, but the women behind Canada's Iskwew Air, are up to the challenge. Iskwewair Indigenousowned womenowned
IN AUGUST 2021, the first Indigenous woman-owned airline in Canada took flight. Operating on unceded Musqueam land, Iskwew Air currently offers flights from Vancouver International Airport to Qualicum Beach Airport—an area that had been without service since the onset of the pandemic. But what started as a decade-long dream almost didn’t happen. In 2016, Iskwew Air’s Métis founder, aviator Teara Fraser, 51, considered hanging up her wings.
ADVERTISEMENT “Our mere existence is disruption,” Fraser continues. “Disruption of a system that isn’t working.” ADVERTISEMENT The name of Fraser’s aircraft, The Sweetgrass Warrior, reflects this boundary-breaking spirit. “I think of myself as sweetgrass—both grounded and flowing,” she says. “And I define warriorship as standing fiercely with deep love for what matters and for what is possible in the world.”