Decolonizing Marketing: Learning from Indigenous Wisdom
Marketing has always been a tool for shaping perception and driving economic growth. But its evolution from pre-colonial trade networks to today's digital ecosystems carries the legacy of extraction–from land, culture, and communities.
From the British Empire Marketing Board's colonial-era campaigns to Edward Bernays' psychological manipulation tactics and today's algorithm-driven consumption, marketing has often prioritised profit over collective wellbeing.
As we face intersecting ecological and social crises, we can no longer afford marketing practices that deplete rather than regenerate. Our shared future depends on transforming how we communicate value, influence behaviour, and measure success.
Regenerative marketing, inspired by Indigenous wisdom and living systems thinking, invites us to explore:
👉 The colonial legacy of marketing, where do we still see these patterns today?
👉 Indigenous wisdom and regenerative principles, how they can help us build marketing that nurtures rather than extracts.
👉 Unlearning and reimagining, what does it take to move beyond performative inclusion toward authentic relationship-building
👉 Practical steps for creating ethical, community-centred marketing that honours all life
WHAT TO EXPECT
An intimate, heart-centred fireside conversation that breaks out of the "marketing echo chamber." We're looking to bring together voices from multiple disciplines and lived experiences - marketers, Indigenous leaders, philosophers, researchers, economists, and change-makers, to explore what a post-colonial, life-centred marketing future looks like and how we can collectively build it.
GET TO KNOW OUR SPEAKERS
We’ll be joined by guest speakers Tania Lo, Co-CEO at Tandem, Sahibzada Mayed, Decolonial Researcher at Pause and Effect, Ashanti Kunene, Founder at Learn to Unlearn, and John Fullerton, Founder of Capital Institute. 👇🏼
Tania Lo is the CEO & Co-Founder at Tandem Innovation Group Inc. which is at the forefront of the co-creation economy and the growing demand for outsourced experts. An edgerunner, innovator, connector and multi-specialist, Tania is passionate about building relationships and community through shared trust and accountability. She is based in Vancouver, the traditional, ancestral and unceded land of the Coast Salish, Musqueam and Squamish peoples. When she’s not connecting people to resources, she is the mom of 2 and produced the award winning documentary film @longroadnorth during the time she road her bike 16,000 kms from Bolivia to the Canadian Arctic.
Sahibzada Mayed, Decolonial Researcher at Pause and Effect, Abolitionist by Design, and Fashionista gone rogue. Mayed has an extensive background in community-based participatory design, emancipatory research, and trauma-centered practice, and comes from a lineage of ancestors who tended to their native lands and waters as a primary form of sustenance and survival. Due to colonial violence and forced displacement, these relationships have been severed over multiple generations and cycles of loss. Mayed's identity is shaped by their background as a Muslim immigrant of Persian, Afghan, Indian, and Pakistani heritage, as well as lived experiences of queerness, Disability, and neurodivergence. Unravelling the work of colonization has led them through a process of reconciliation and remembrance. Mayed’s work and practice is rooted in principles of abolition and transformative justice. They wake up everyday with a heartful commitment to be a better future ancestor.
Ashanti Kunene is the founder of Learning 2 Unlearn, a strategic narratives consultancy focused on cultivating leadership coherence in the context of the polycrisis. She is also the Executive Director of the Elevator, a Katapult Foundation initiative working to elevate consciousness to support complex systems change. Working at the nexus of wealth, technology and consciousness Ashanti is an activist poet, decolonial dialogue facilitator and contemporary African artist.
John Fullerton, is an unconventional economist, impact investor, writer, and the Founder of Capital Institute. Building on and integrating the work of many, he is the architect of Regenerative Economics, first conceived in his 2015 booklet, “Regenerative Capitalism: How Universal Patterns and Principles Will Shape the New Economy.” After a successful 20-year career on Wall Street where he was a Managing Director of what he calls “the old JPMorgan,” John listened to a persistent inner voice and walked away in 2001 with no plan but many questions. The questions crystalized into his life’s work with the creation of the Capital Institute in 2010 where his work reflects the rising evolutionary shift in consciousness from Modern Age thinking to Integral Age thinking. Capital Institute is dedicated to the bold reimagination of economics and finance in service to life. Guided by the universal patterns and principles that describe how all healthy living systems that sustain themselves in the real world actually work, the promise of Regenerative Economics and Finance is to unlock the profound and presently unseen potential that is the source of our future prosperity and the reason for hope in our troubled times.
WHY THIS MATTERS
We're creating a space to:
🌿 Examine deep patterns in how we've been conditioned to think about growth, success, and value.
🗣 Amplify diverse voices often excluded from marketing conversations.
💡 Exchange practical wisdom across disciplines and backgrounds.
🔄 Co-create new approaches that measure success by their contribution to ecosystem health.
WHO SHOULD JOIN
We're actively seeking participants from beyond the marketing world. This playground is designed to create unexpected connections and fresh insights by bringing together people who wouldn't typically share the same conversation space.
Are you working at the intersection of culture, communication, and regeneration from any discipline? Your perspective is not just welcome—it's essential.
Join us as we explore what regenerative marketing truly means in practice, and how we can transform marketing from a tool of extraction to a force for healing.
WHAT PAST PARTICIPANTS HAD TO SAY
"A stimulating “safe place” to share, be heard, listen and learn. Plenty of people from different perspectives to shake up the conversation and create learning opportunities." - Gwyn Jones
"I felt truly inspired after this session! 😍 Thank you for creating these spaces to connect with leaders who are rethinking business models. It really shifted my perspective on the responsibility we have as marketers to remain transparent and true to the core essence of our businesses. I loved hearing the diverse perspectives and exploring new approaches to driving meaningful change. This conversation genuinely opened my eyes! I’m excited to continue learning and connecting with others who share this vision." - Michelle Guzman Murphy"This was a refreshing discussion! I found the speakers had developed insights that were very inspirational. I love when people are willing to share their discoveries willingly and open to further development of it all. So often people are working with a surface perspective.The self awareness in this group was obvious to me and I think this is so much more productive moving forward in the complexity of today's world. None of this is easy to navigate. Thanks for the invite. Lots of food for thought!" - Patti Beer