Giinwa Debahjmowin
(Our Story)

Boozhoo/Greetings! We are a mother/daughter and Anishinaabe-women-led company, who sells ethical and locally roasted coffee beans, inside a cafe in Wallaceburg, Ontario. Our goal is to operate with conscious intentionality, where ethical trade and commerce lead to a thriving and sustainable future for everyone involved.

 

We began our journey in 2023, after noticing a need for what we could offer at our cafe. After planning, securing space, much hard work of renovations, learning —continuously learning—today our cafe is a cozy touchstone to visit if you're in the mood for heart-warming drinks such as freshly roasted and ground coffee or tea, authentic and contemporary Anishinaabeg (and Indigenous to the Americas fusion) cuisine, along with home-made baked goods.

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At our cafe, we serve our customers quality goods while simultaneously cultivating a safe space of belonging and empowerment within our community. When it comes to food and drinks, we try and keep things as local, fresh, healthy and energizing as possible.

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A few years back, after experiencing Natem, in Shuar (also known as Ayahuasca in Quechua) and in the heart of the Amazon Rainforest, our lives were upgraded for the better. That series of experiences, along with being inspired by a lifelong friend, Paula Naponse, owner of Beandigen Café in Ottawa, emboldened us to follow our dreams. Now we're ready to show others it is possible to follow dreams and at the same time, we want to help fuel our customers to follow theirs.

 

Along with opening Ode’mini Giizis Café, we launched our coffee brand, featuring Unity Blend which embodies a shared prophecy of North and South American Indigenous peoples - The Eagle and the Condor. Unity Blend represents unifying the mind with the heart, necessary for peace.   

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The colour scheme of the café with the many shades of red, and the symbols and meaning of Ode’imin (the heart berry) were chosen to empower Indigenous women and all peoples. Red is a power colour and helps to root, ground and heal us. The strawberry is being used here to honour, and help shift us above and beyond the narrative of being targets of missing and murdered Indigenous people to a story of resurgence and mino bimaadiziwin (the good life). It's a good life, we all crave it and deserve to live it.

 

In essence, we strive each day at the Cafe to create a safe and empowering space for women and all people to simply be who we are, as Anishinaabeg and allies. Come relax and energize, while enjoying an ethical cup of deliciously balanced and freshly roasted coffee that supports women and small community co-operatives in Guatemala. Annually, a percentage of our project efforts are given back to earth and Indigenous people supporting projects and causes both locally and globally.

 

Biindigen (come in) and welcome, please enjoy.

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Miigwech,

Amy and Chloe