The Art of Finding Her Way Back: Chanelle Barnaby of Fox & Feathers

For Chanelle Barnaby, entrepreneurship did not begin with a business plan. It began with finding her way back to something she had always carried with her.

A member of Natoaganeg (Eel Ground) First Nation, Chanelle has been creative froma young age. Her mother always told her that she would become an artist someday, but for many years, Chanelle never imagined that art could become a career or a way to provide for her family.

Before Fox & Feathers, Chanelle worked in the automotive industry in sales and finance management, often working six or seven days a week for 10 to 13 hours at a time. While she was successful in her career, she found herself questioning whether the work was where she was meant to be.

“I felt like I was not contributing to the world,” she recalls. “I just felt very lost and disconnected from my culture.”

A serious car accident changed the course of her life. Following the accident, Chanelle became permanently disabled and faced significant challenges as she adjusted to a different reality. During that period, she also struggled with addiction and found herself searching for a way forward.

Eventually, she made the decision to enter a two-month residential treatment program in her community. It was there that something familiar came back to her.

The aunties began teaching her to bead again.

Chanelle had learned to bead when she was young, but had not picked it up in roughly 15 years. Once she began again, something clicked.

“I was hooked.”

Beading became more than a creative outlet. It became part of Chanelle’s journey toward sobriety, connection, and healing. It gave her something she loved doing, something that connected her back to her culture, and something she could do while being present in her daughter’s life.

That journey is deeply woven into Fox & Feathers, where Chanelle creates beadwork and fur products that carry meaning beyond their physical form.

Her beadwork incorporates the four sacred medicines that she grows and harvests herself, alongside healing crystals, Swarovski crystals, and real gold and silver beads. The medicines are placed behind the beadwork, creating pieces that she describes as being like a medicine pouch.

Her fur work carries its own connection to Indigenous communities. Chanelle works with fur collected by Native trappers across Turtle Island to create Pom Pom hats, scarves, headbands, ear muffs, hair claw clips, and fox fur slides. Her interchangeable Pom Poms allow customers to change colours and styles, creating pieces that can evolve with them.

But Fox & Feathers is not only about what Chanelle makes.

It is also about what she has learned through her own journey and what she wants to pass on.

Alongside her work as an artist and entrepreneur, Chanelle is an Indigenous community support worker. She has worked directly with at-risk women, youth, and residential school Survivors, often incorporating beadwork classes and art therapy into her work.

Teaching is one of the parts of her work that she loves most.

For Chanelle, sharing knowledge is deeply personal. Community played an important role in helping her find her way forward, and she hopes to create those same kinds of spaces for others.

“I love to pass my knowledge onto others and work in the community,” she says. “That is what saved my life nine years ago.”

That desire to teach is also part of where Chanelle sees Fox & Feathers going next. She hopes to continue growing the business through e-commerce while creating more opportunities to teach art therapy and beadwork in person.

After years of building her business largely by figuring things out as she went, Chanelle knew she was ready for something different.

When she applied to Wejibàbandan, she was clear about what she wanted: to learn, to grow, and to finally give Fox & Feathers the foundation it deserves.

“I've been winging it for seven years, but I'm READY for it to be great.”

The timing felt right. Her daughter had recently moved to Vancouver Island to attend university, and Chanelle was no longer working her overnight job. For the first time, she felt ready to pour her energy into her business and into herself as an entrepreneur.

Wejibàbandan offers Chanelle the opportunity to build the business knowledge and structure that she has never formally had, while connecting her with mentors and other Indigenous entrepreneurs who are also building their own paths.

For someone who has spent years learning through experience, that next stage of learning is something she is embracing wholeheartedly.

She wants Fox & Feathers to grow, become profitable, reach new customers, and create more opportunities for her to share her knowledge. But underneath those goals is something that has remained consistent throughout her journey: a desire to create something meaningful.

Something that allows her to be present.

Something that keeps her connected.

Something that can help other people find their own way forward.

Fox & Feathers was born from Chanelle finding her way back to beadwork. Now, through Wejibàbandan, she is ready to see where that path can take her next.

And if her journey so far is any indication, Fox & Feathers is only just beginning.