From remedy to retail

Patrice Mousseau remembers the beginning of Satya Organic as deeply personal: a baby who rarely slept and a mother searching for relief.

When her daughter Esme developed eczema at eight months old, a doctor prescribed topical steroids. Patrice wanted to explore what else might help, so she turned to the skills she knew best as a journalist: research.

“I looked at existing medical research,” she says. “I looked into different studies that had been put out by universities, as well as anecdotal evidence from traditional medicine.”

After weeks of research, Patrice settled on several ingredients to mix into a remedy: almond oil, calendula-infused jojoba oil, colloidal oatmeal and beeswax. She says Esme’s rash disappeared within two days.

With an entire slow cooker of balm left over, Patrice offered it on a local moms’ Facebook group to anyone who needed it. Without realizing it at the time, she had created the beginning of what would eventually become Satya Organic Skin Care.

What began in her kitchen soon became Satya Organic, a skin care brand focused on simple, plant-based products for people with eczema and sensitive skin. Patrice first tested it at a farmers’ market in Port Moody, B.C.

“It was amazing,” she says.

The name Satya reflects the values behind the brand. Patrice chose the Sanskrit word, meaning “truth,” after first considering an Anishinaabemowin word connected to living a good life.

Patrice, who is Anishinaabe and a member of Fort William First Nation, had spent years in broadcast journalism and had never run a business before. As the company grew, she looked for ways to build it with community in mind, including an early “Mom Network” that paid women who needed flexible work to ship products from home.

Today, Satya products are available in select Shoppers Drug Mart and Pharmaprix stores. For Patrice, becoming one of the first Indigenous brands in Shoppers Drug Mart is not only a business milestone. It is also a way to show what is possible.

“We should be there,” she says. “I want more Indigenous brands to be in Shoppers Drug Mart.”

Satya is also part of Loblaw’s Small Supplier Program, which is designed to help reduce barriers for program members and provide experience working with large-scale retailers.

Now based on the Tsleil-Waututh First Nation on Vancouver’s North Shore, Patrice continues to advocate for more opportunities for Indigenous and women entrepreneurs. Her advice to others is simple: “Just start.”

“You don’t know what barriers are going to pop up,” she says. “You just have to get in there and try and figure it out.”

During National Indigenous History Month, Satya Organic’s story offers a look at how Indigenous entrepreneurship can create space not only for products, but also for different ways of building, leading and belonging in retail.

For Patrice, that impact is still measured in the messages she receives from families.

“When someone tells me it helped their child,” she says, “those are the types of emails that keep me going.”