My shopping cart
Your cart is currently empty.
Continue ShoppingEighth Generation’s Decolonizing Partnership Model is the gold standard for how companies collaborate with Indigenous cultural artists and entrepreneurs. Proven effective through hundreds of collaborative projects, the model disrupts exploitative business practices carried forward from times of extreme power imbalances by promoting true ethical partnerships—culturally responsive, sustainable, and mutually beneficial. Established brands that approach cultural artists or arts entrepreneurs with our Decolonizing Partnership Model in mind are exhibiting a desire to support, not exploit, cultural artists.
In 2021, Eighth Generation worked with Starbucks utilizing the Decolonizing Partnership Model to create a community capsule collection that highlighted the work of Native artists in a respectful and equitable way. “Starbucks represents the first global business to join us in a Decolonizing Partnership,” said Eighth Generation Founder and CEO Louie Gong (Nooksack). “Meeting these progressive standards required Starbucks to flex or change fundamental components of their processes for product development, sourcing, and distribution.” Our work with Starbucks proves the viability of the model for major corporations wanting to make a switch to ethical Native partnerships. A Decolonizing Partnership with global sports brand Brooks is currently underway, with product launch scheduled for Fall 2022.
The model is anchored by five core principles outlined below.
Eighth Generation receives NCAIED Small Business Empowerment award for empowering small businesses
Our Decolonizing Partnership Model is anchored by five core principles:
A Decolonized Partnership respects cultural art as a natural resource—one that must be protected and invested in.