COYA Productions recognizes that Indigenous people have been strategically and systemically denied access to economic building activities due to colonization and capitalism and as a result our relationships with time and money have become severed and traumatized. 

COYA is working to reclaim Indigenous epistemologies of time and money and specifically re-matriate how we work. Our existence as a Métis woman owned company is a direct expression of how Indigneous women leading companies can re-matriate the future of work. We believe this is Indigenous economic resurgence in action.

COYA celebrates that traditional forms of commerce are based on mutually beneficial relationships, knowledge exchange, trade, feasting, and sharing. To ensure these ways are reclaimed and reinstated, COYA exists to live these values.

Every Indigenous innovation we co-create together shall be informed by the Traditional Knowledge and Inuit Qaujimajatuqangit (IQ) of our Elders and Knowledge Keepers. 

To value Elders and knowledge keeper’s wisdom, time, and energy -  all contributions shall receive fair and timely payment for their contributions. We commit to follow local protocols to ensure all engagements are done in a good way, even if this is more expensive and takes more time than we originally imagined.  We ensure everyone understands that their contributions will never be sold or shared outside their community without free, prior, and informed consent, and a valid reason to do so.

We know that the quality of the work we produce is informed by the quality of how we work together.  COYA Productions moves at the speed of trust and relationships, health and wellbeing.  

We prioritize ceremony and traditional harvesting practices. We honour Indigenous holidays and times of community mourning.  We encourage families to work together, children to join our meetings, and the best ideas to emerge while we gather, feast, and play. We celebrate the choice to be on the land while seasons and weather allows, and are kind to ourselves and others when we prioritize those decisions.

Honorariums, feasting, gifting and the sharing of medicines, will show up in our budgets. All proposed project development and delivery timelines will be respectfully approximate, in order to walk our talk.