Our Story
Native Speakers is the first flag planted in a larger vision: a marketplace that helps organizations build real relationships with Indigenous people, businesses, and knowledge, beginning with speakers, artists, performers, facilitators, and cultural leaders.
For too long, Indigenous speakers, artists, and knowledge-holders have been an afterthought, contacted at the last minute, underpaid, and asked to represent entire peoples in a single hour. We started Native Speakers to change that, and to build something that lasts.
We connect organizations with Indigenous speakers, artists, performers, facilitators, hosts, and advisors, and we hold the standard for how that work happens: with consent, fair compensation, cultural protocol, and proper preparation. The booking platform is just the beginning.
Hli Haykwhl Ẃii Xsgaak · Co-founder
A trailblazing public leader of Nisga'a, Gitxsan, Cree, and Ojibway ancestry, Melanie brings decades of advocacy in public service, education, and community to the work of building relationships that last. She co-founds Native Speakers to ensure Indigenous voices are booked with the respect and value they deserve.
Native Speakers
Native Speakers is built by partners who share a belief that an Indigenous-owned marketplace can change how organizations and communities work together, starting with the people who carry the stories, knowledge, art, and leadership that move rooms.
We build long-term relationships between organizations and Indigenous people, not one-off bookings.
Decisions, ownership, and direction stay in Indigenous hands.
We are building durable infrastructure so the value of this work stays in community.
The booking platform sits at the centre of a wider network of Indigenous-led opportunity, each part connected by relationship.
Native Speakers begins with rooms, stages, and gatherings, then grows toward broader Indigenous relationship infrastructure.
Plan an engagement, join the roster, or reach out to explore a partnership. This marketplace grows through relationship.