Cedar Canoe Candles is an Anishinaabe-Kwe owned and operated candle company who are minimal-minded, culturally conscious, and clean-living inspired. Owned and operated in Nipissing First Nation.
All of our scents are inspired by Northern Ontario & Indigenous Plant Medicines. The owners, designers, crafters, and marketers are Brooklyn Penasse and Savannah Mcleod, cousins and best friends since childhood.
As a consumer, we attended a very beautiful local “Artisan’s Way Night Market” beside Lake Nipissing in Summer of 2021, a spark was lit amongst us both. We wanted to be a part of something as beautiful as this night market. We felt we could put our talents, skills, and knowledge into a beautiful craft that we felt our community was missing, so we began brainstorming and carefully planning our brand.
We felt a candle would fill an empty space, and would provide the best expression to the message we wanted to convey. Our overall goal is to reach as many communities as we can with the very special products that we produce. The reach is important to us because we want to inspire others to heal, feel gratitude for their life, and believe in themselves if they have a pursuit they want to follow as we did ourselves.
Our products are crafted with non-toxic, phthalate and paraben free ingredients. The 4 Sacred Medicines in our Indigenous culture are the core inspiration to our company; the ability to light a medicine scented candle to help enable grounding, healing, and gratitude.
We felt that the medicines, Cedar, Tobacco, Sweetgrass, and Sage, had valuable attributes to provide well-being and spiritual connection for oneself who may not be able to light a smudge in their current living space. We also felt our candles can support regular gratitude practices by how we branded our candles, with descriptions including the scent notes and what inspiration or feeling it can evoke. The wooden wick provided the final touch on our brand, bringing our customer as close as they can to the real grounding crackling fire.
Our first candle was sold in June 2022, and we’ve grown tremendously since then. We began our selling journey following the Powwow Trail, embracing the healing of the powwow grounds, drumming and dancing. We sold amongst other very gifted crafters from all over in the season of 2022 and 2023. We attended the Artisan’s Way Night Market every date they hosted in 2022, 2023 and soon to be 2024, including special markets such as The Bay Block Party, and Holiday Markets.
The other holiday markets we regularly attended were hosted in Sturgeon Falls, and the North Bay Indigenous Friendship Center’s Annual Indigenous Winter Market. In the middle of all the markets and powwows we attended, we developed a wholesale customer base for local and distant retail locations and custom orders for programming and gifts.
The amount of support we receive in all the directions we travel is astounding to this day. We remained the same since the beginning, while adding new scent collections that fit our Northern Ontario & Indigenous Plant Medicines brand.
Miigwech for all the love and support and thanks for being a part of our journey.
