Local Indigenous Culture Shared Through Wellness Product Business

Natural and locally sourced health and wellness products have seen a recent increase in interest. As people are looking to get away from chemically saturated products, they turn to local small business owners for natural alternatives. 

Cecilia Brooks, from Saint Mary’s First Nation, often sent her two sons to school with lip balms during the winter months only for them to be lost before the day was over. 

“I thought ‘gosh I’m a chemist, I could make lip balm,’” she said.  

She started making lip balms and other natural body care products to share with her friends and family.  When her sons were older, they suggested she start her own business.  

Soul Flower Herbals is a Wabanaki family-owned business that sells body care and wellness products. She first started making products as a natural alternative to commercial body care options.  

Even simple products like baby oil contain petroleum-based mineral oils. Petroleum, a natural fossil fuel, is often used as fuel and can also be converted into plastics. It is also commonly found in skin-care products in the form of mineral oil—a byproduct of refining crude oils and petroleum products. 

Soul Flower offers an alternative to this with all-natural, local ingredients. 

 

Brooks uses her background as a chemist to make the products with locally sourced plants that are hand-picked by her and her family. 

She extracts components of the plants to incorporate into her products which she sells at the Fredericton Boyce Farmer’s Market. 

“[In 2006] we started with just lip balms,” said Brooks, but she has now expanded her products to soaps, candles, smudge bundles, balms, and makeup products such as blush and lipstick. 

The products also incorporate Brook’s Indigenous culture. One of the more popular items is the Bear Balm, used to relieve muscle and joint pain.  

“Our ancestors used the bear grease as a pain reliever,” said Brooks. “Our belief is that there’s medicine in the bear grease.” 

Some of her other products have healing ingredients in them such as their Elderberry Syrup which helps relieve cold symptoms. 

Brook’s business has been growing since 2006. She now has a steady customer base and her tables at the market are overflowing with products. She plans to expand her business with a store run out of her home.  

Customers can view products on their website and book appointments to visit the store to make purchases. Brooks says this way she can run her business more efficiently—without having to sit and wait for customers for eight hours a day.