Maria Clark opened the door to her home in the First Nations community of Ty-Histanis with a warm smile.
Caught on a day off as Tin Wis Resort’s assistant general manager, Clark was spending the day with her grandkids, family time she cherishes deeply.
“Fortunately, a lot of young Indigenous women have come to me and said, ‘I like to see you speaking. I like to hear you speaking. I look up to you’,” says Clark.
“I feel like I am breaking barriers and creating space for Indigenous People. That is a good feeling,” she continues.
Clark was named the 2024 Business Leader of Year at the recent Tofino Business Excellence Awards gala hosted by the Tofino Beach Chamber of Commerce. She is the first Indigenous person to be elected to Tourism Tofino’s board of directors and a director at-large for Indigenous Tourism BC.
Tourism Tofino’s executive director Brad Parsell called Clark “one of the most inspiring people working in Tofino’s tourism industry.”
“She is so dedicated to using tourism as a vehicle to lift up her community, and especially for creating opportunities for Indigenous youth. As I understand it, she is one of the only female Indigenous hotel executives in the province,” said Parsell.
With a mix of pride and embarrassment, Parsell spoke about Clark being the first Indigenous person to ever sit on Tourism Tofino’s board.
“Why did it take so long to have this critical representation? Regardless, Maria is making a huge difference on the west coast and absolutely deserves to be honoured as Tofino’s Business Leader of the Year,” he said.
A couple years ago, Clark journeyed to New Zealand with Parsell and other Tofino tourism leaders on what was dubbed the ‘Think Big Tour’.
“I was really inspired there. I was inspired because I feel like the Māori People and us Nuu-chah-nulth People live such parallel lives. They really know how to use tourism as a benefit to communities. All of my dreams were materialized there,” Clark told the Ha-Shilth-Sa.
Since the New Zealand tour, Clark says she’s been working at rebuilding Tin Wis into a safe space by taking a grassroots, community-based approach, but reveals it’s been a long, winding road to land on her feet and create space.
Over her 15 plus years at Tin Wis, Clark says she trained “a lot of managers and never moved up”. She also endured bouts of racist, misogynistic behaviour from co-workers.
“There were so many breaks in the connection to our community from the really colonial way of thinking. When you are employing Indigenous People, if you’re not trauma-informed, if you’re not practicing lateral kindness and understanding what lateral violence is, you’ll just continue to break these connections,” she shared.
Under her leadership, Tin Wis has re-emerged as a “social economic enterprise” that provides training, business mentorship opportunities and is committed to uplifting local Indigenous companies like Ahous Adventures and T̓iick̓in (Thunderbird) Ebike Rentals.
“I think it’s important to amplify Indigenous business. There is no territory when it comes to self-determination and sovereignty. We need to be able to amplify Indigenous communities and people,” she said.
Part of the Tin Wis 10-year action plan includes returning the name Tin Wis, meaning ‘calm waters’ in Nuu-chah-nulth language, back to Mackenzie Beach and gaining 10 per cent of Tofino’s annual economic output.
In 2024, visitor activities in the region contributed to an estimated $657 million in total economic output to the provincial economy, according to a recently released Economic Impact of Tourism in Tofino study.
“I really believe in manifesting. You put it out there with intention and that’s when things come together,” Clark said, noting that the foundation for a new carving shed was recently laid on the property so members can carve totem poles on-site.
“I want to see interpretive tours (at Tin Wis). We can create those, but I think it would be absolutely phenomenal if a young Tla-o-qui-aht youth started their own little business and just partnered with us,” adds Clark.
Last year, Clark launched Island Coast Mobile Welding and Fabrication with her partner Gemar Gilliard.
“I think she should win all of the medals,” Gilliard beamed. “She’s been underplayed a lot, but when they do listen to her opinion they always go far. I think she has tons of wonderful ideas flowing in her head that could help the nation and help Tofino.”
Originally launched in 2016, the Tofino Business Excellence Awards was created to celebrate Tofino’s remarkable business community. Entries are judged 50 per cent by public voting and 50 per cent by our panel of judges that has included government officials, Chamber of Commerce managers from around B.C., and other community leaders.
Past Business Leader of the Year winners include Samantha Hackett (former manager of Long Beach Lodge Resort), Charles McDiarmid (owner of Wickaninnish Inn) and Duane Bell (owner of Rhino Coffee House).
For 2024, Hotel Zed Tofino won Business of the Year, Adriana’s Sandwich Shop won Small Business of the Year, New Business of the Year went to Ahous Adventures, Long Beach Golf Course took Non-profit of the Year, Jenna Pearce from the Westcoast Community Resources Society was named Employee of the Year, Tofino Resort + Marina won Employer of the Year, Green Business of the Year went to The Den Refillery Tofino and Jeju Restaurant won Customer Service Excellence.