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Imagine if all indigenous knowledge keepers were all easy to access. Some of them now are — thanks to a local business venture.

Regina resident Claire Belanger-Parker and Saskatoon resident Shannon Loutitt have launched the International Indigenous Speakers Bureau (IISB).

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Belanger-Parker has been an event planner for the past 16 years and over that time she realized two things. The first was access to indigenous speakers was limited and the second was that indigenous speakers were not being paid the same as their non-indigenous counterparts, which she hopes to rectify.

About five years ago, Belanger-Parker and Loutitt discussed the idea of creating an indigenous speaker’s bureau.

In 2014, they incorporated the business and thought it would ready to go by the following year.

However, last fall, the pair attended the Canadian Council for Aboriginal Business Conference in Saskatoon and realized their business needed some tweaking.