Patrick Shannon

Patrick is an award-winning social entrepreneur, film director, photographer and university instructor from Haida Gwaii.

Selected as young Entrepreneur of the Year by the BC Aboriginal Business Awards, Patrick has founded over a dozen start-ups, social, creative, and non-profit initiatives that resulted in him being selected as one of the top 15 Emerging Innovators in Canada by Ashoka Changemakers, and one of the top 50 Young Cultural Innovators in the world by Salzburg Global Seminar in 2017.

Inspired by his cultural upbringing, Patrick endeavours to use technology and media to empower locals in addressing the social & cultural issues within Canada’s Indigenous communities.

With over 15 years of experience working within the Vancouver film, television and photography industries, Patrick currently operates film production company InnoNative, Indigenous modelling agency Supernaturals, and a media training and production initiative called the Haida Gwaii Media Collective.

In 2021, Patrick co-founded Supernaturals Modelling along side fellow Indigenous changemaker Joleen Mitton.

Supernaturals is the world’s first Indigenous modelling agency, with a focus on high end and healthy cultural representation, Supernaturals aims to address the issues of representation in the media and fashion industries.

Background

(B. April 29, 1989) Patrick is Haida from the remote First Nations village of HlG̱aagilda Skidegate on Haida Gwaii, and belongs to the T’aanuu Raven-Wolf clan. Patrick’s Haida name is Nang Ḵ’uulas and he holds the role of master of ceremonies for his clan, speaking on behalf of his chief and matriarchs during clan functions and potlatches.

Raised almost exclusively on his reserve until the age of 15, he was sent to Vancouver in 2004 to pursue an education, but soon switched his focus to working full time in the Vancouver film industry at the age of 16, while honing his craft as a photographer, graphic designer, and filmmaker.

After stints working for Apple, managing the RIO Theatre in East Vancouver, and being the video director for Hockeygods, he moved back home to his reserve in 2013 to care for his grandmother, and through this, reconnected with his culture that inspired a burning desire to address systemic issues of representation and racism for Indigenous people in media. After graduation from Haida Owned and Operated, an entrepreneurship program through the University of Victoria, he launched a co-working space in Skidegate, BC called the X̱aayda Hub, and created InnoNative along side good friend and business partner Yolanda Clatworthy.

Since 2015, Patrick has been an instructor for IACE, an award-winning Indigenous social entrepreneurship program co-designed with First Nations communities and the University of Victoria’s Peter B. Gustavson School of Business. This program is designed to build entrepreneurship capacity within First Nations communities, and Patrick brings his experience to teach branding, marketing, social media, and web design to aspiring entrepreneurs wanting to start or grow their businesses in community.

These Days, Patrick splits his time Between Vancouver, Haida Gwaii, and travelling on the road for work. He usually has his hands full producing and directing film & tv projects, running his several businesses, and finding new avenues for creativity.

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