How an App Can Make Banking More Equitable for Indigenous Communities

My late grandfather believed that if you weren’t getting the service you needed as an Indigenous person, you had to provide it yourself. Growing up as a member of We Wai Kai Nation on Quadra Island in British Columbia, I witnessed firsthand how this wisdom was born from necessity. Our community, a small one between Vancouver Island and the mainland, separated from Campbell River by the Discovery Passage, regularly struggled to access basic services that most Canadians take for granted—everything from health care to banking.
My grandfather was one of the most successful commercial fishermen on the West Coast during his era. He embraced modern technology as well as traditional practices to support his family and achieve his success. He balanced his teachings on the importance of a solid work ethic with a progressive outlook on Indigenous development: to create meaningful impact, you need to blend cultural traditions with Indigenous-led innovation.
I was reminded of his lessons years later while working as band administrator at the We Wai Kai Nation. Over the course of nearly seven years–and over two decades since working in Indigenous governance since–I saw countless members of my community struggle to access basic financial services: elders forced to travel hours to reach their bank branches, others denied service when presenting government-issued Indian status cards because bank tellers lacked the training to recognize Indigenous forms of identification.
This was most famously the case for Maxwell Johnson and his 12-year-old granddaughter Tori-Anne. Members of the Heiltsuk Nation in British Columbia, they were handcuffed in 2019 while trying to open an account at a Vancouver BMO branch. The bank’s staff looked at their identification documents, deemed them inauthentic, and called 911 to report an alleged fraud in progress.
Indigenous communities in Canada have long been excluded from equitable banking services. Institutional racism and a mistrust of financial institutions combine to deepen economic disenfranchisement. Today, it’s estimated that up to 15 percent of Indigenous peoples remain unbanked, cut off from essential financial services and forced to rely on predatory alternatives with high fees.
The banking crisis faced by Indigenous communities made it painfully clear to me that without a private, digital alternative to modern banking systems, Indigenous people would continue to be disconnected from resources and unable to fully participate in the economy. I didn’t have a background in technology, but I had a vision of a platform that integrated technology and sovereignty to empower Indigenous communities. Armed with my grandfather’s wisdom, I reached a pivotal moment and decided to assemble a team and turn the idea into a reality that would become the OneFeather platform.
Launched in 2021, OneFeather’s Mobile Wallet app offers users essential banking services without requiring physical branch visits. With just a smartphone, users can manage their finances, send and receive money, and build credit using a reloadable, virtual credit card. Crucially, no prior bank account is required–although users have the option to link an existing bank account–and users can verify their IDs through the app.
For Indigenous communities, our exclusion from banking services is more than an inconvenience—it’s a barrier to economic sovereignty. By integrating technology into these systems of access, digital solutions like ours are uniquely placed to make governance more inclusive and accessible because they can eliminate geographical, temporal, and health-related barriers.
What makes our solution unique is that it is designed to remove barriers digitally while honouring our traditional ways of being. For instance, our OneFeather tokens rewards program allows members to share points with family and friends, reflecting our cultural values of community-sharing and reciprocity. By ensuring that Indigenous forms of identification are recognized and respected, users can more easily manage their finances.
Our commitment to serving Indigenous communities by digital means extends beyond banking, because we know how technology can also help Nation members exercise their democratic rights, whether they live on or off-reserve. Since 2015, OneFeather’s platform has offered secure, digital voting systems that allow community members to participate in elections remotely. During the pandemic, when status card holders struggled to renew their documents with Indigenous Services Canada’s paper-based processes, we created a new online renewal portal, accessible from any smart device. With a 98 per cent application success rate and a commitment to review applications within two days, we’ve transformed what was once an arduous process into a streamlined, dignified experience.
Looking ahead, we want our platform to be able to handle pay treaty annuity payments and be used to make mass Nation fund disbursements to members. Indigenous communities have always been resilient, finding ways to adapt and thrive despite systemic challenges. OneFeather represents a tangible continuation of that resilience—a testament to what’s possible when we honour our past while embracing the potential of the digital age. We’re proving that technology, when built with and for Indigenous people, can be a powerful tool for restoring access to the rights and benefits that are rightfully ours.
Every digital innovation we’ve developed is guided by our core principle that community impact is more important than any financial metric. As my grandfather taught me, true service to community means leaving the table better than how we found it. Through OneFeather, we’re not just creating technology—we’re building pathways to Indigenous economic sovereignty; one digital solution at a time.