Ursula Bear’s passion for providing traditional Wolastoqey crafts and canned goods to people and communities has led to a successful career.
For many years, Ursula sold beadwork at the pow wows near her home community of Tobique First Nation. She then began gardening after an injury made her leave post-secondary school. “There was so much leftover from my garden at the end of that first year that I started to learn how to pickle and preserve,” said Ursula, “and that was the start of the jams and pickled fiddleheads.” At first, she gifted her goods to others but people thought that they were so good that they wanted to purchase them instead.
Ursula started her company “Bear Necessities” because she felt there weren’t many people in her community or the surrounding area offering products similar to hers. “Along with the gardening, the jams and the jellies,” said Ursula, “I also do medicine and jewelry workshops, I teach arts and crafts, and I do medicine walks for businesses, schools and summer camps.”
Ursula shared that she had many mentors over the years, “Cecelia Brooks from Saint Mary’s, she was someone who believed in my medicines and my workshops, she would take me through medicine walks and share her knowledge. I learned a lot from her and my aunt, Gwen Bear, and Bodin Nicholas taught me how to bead when I was young.”
Being an entrepreneur comes with many challenges, but Ursula felt her biggest challenge was leaving the safety net of her home community and the powwows to venture onto other things. “To me those felt safe, they were my people, my group,” shared Ursula. “Stepping out of my comfort zone was the biggest challenge. Tourism New Brunswick was a big thing because they ordered 200 jars of my pickled fiddleheads, it terrified me, but I felt great at the same time. I was the first Indigenous person to be featured on Tourism New Brunswick’s website for my pickled fiddleheads so I'm pretty proud about that.”
To continue to grow her business, Ursula took the Business Incubator and Arts Accelerator programs at JEDI. “I can’t give JEDI enough praise,” said Ursula. “They were one of the few places that actually believed in me and got behind me, they did so much to support me. I had done this for a long time, but I just needed that extra little push, I almost didn’t really believe in my art, but they helped me so much to believe in myself. JEDI was a big supporter even when I was just small and setting up at pow wows. They would come and buy little gifts to give out at plenaries; now they invite me to be at the plenaries.”
Ursula’s dad, her husband, and the rest of her family have always been a huge support system for her. Ursula opened a small greenhouse and nursery last year in the middle of the pandemic and said everyone wanted to learn how to grow their own foods, so it worked out. This past summer, Ursula and her husband are taking the 31-week long Regenerative Farming Internship at Hayes Farm. They plan to take their learnings back to Tobique to go use within their new 76-foot x 20-foot greenhouse. In addition, she has gotten permission from NB Power to farm 2 acres of their land. Her plan is to clear the land this fall and hopefully be all set up for selling in Spring 2022.
When Ursula was asked if she has any advice for other Indigenous entrepreneurs she said, “Just stick with it. Don't be afraid to pivot if something isn’t quite going right, try something new, and don’t be afraid to try new things. Believe in yourself and just try it. There are so many organizations that you can reach out to, such as JEDI, they all want you to succeed, everyone will try to help you, it’s there.”