“I take medication every day, and I'm just trying to advocate that it's okay to have a mental health issue. It's not even an issue. It's just a special thing that you have,” says Joseph Greatsky. He is from Brokenhead Ojibwe Nation in Manitoba. When he’s not working, he likes to read, fish, connect with the land as much as he can. A new father of a one year old, he likes to spend time parenting.

As far as his career, he’s working on a project called WhiteFeather AI, an AI companion dedicated to mental health service to Indigenous youth. The project matters to him given he was diagnosed with Bipolar one and struggled with mental health challenges since 2020. His vision for the project is to have somewhere for users to talk about their problems they might not feel comfortable discussing with a therapist but could discuss with an AI system that could learn about them. “It's really exciting stuff, and I really want to see this project come to fruition, and everyone, Indigenous youth, have it on their devices,” he beams.

Greatsky went to Post University in the US. He received a scholarship through his Indigenous program to attend and got to play ice hockey there too. He encourages students to expand where they might want to go to school to include the US also because of the unique opportunity Indigenous people have to attend school in the states. After he graduated, he went into banking, and then into entrepreneurship, creating three businesses that he’s on the board of. His current focus is on WhiteFeather AI.

Something that inspires his focus is the fact that his grandfather’s home community had over 23 suicide attempts among their youth in 2023. Greatsky felt something needed to be done and that this couldn’t be happening in his home community. In speaking with elders, he learned there were no therapists or counsellors and they didn’t have wifi service or bandwidth for virtual services. “There's a lot of obstacles that need to be overcome. But I believe that we're stronger together, and I believe that coming together and starting to work on these projects to help our youth at the end of the day is very meaningful,” he explains.

With support from a Toronto-based mental health app developer, from TakingItGlobal and an encouraging amount of interest on LinkedIn, Greatsky feels empowered to keep going on his mission. He’s launched the website already and he’s on his way. “At the end of the day, what WhiteFeather AI is all about is really finding yourself and doing that the right way,” he reflects. He hopes to launch in the beginning of 2026 with all the funds he’s been able to gather.  

Currently the biggest obstacles he’s been facing have been around privacy and security of chats between the user and the AI system. Greatsky also wants to be sure the AI gives good advice and doesn’t go into sci fi movie advice or something. At first, he thought they would launch this past March but the challenges he has faced so far have meant the launch has needed to be delayed while things get worked out. Given the data relates to Indigenous people specifically, it needs to be secured. While there have been challenges, Greatsky has been feeling forward momentum with the project.

To maintain his mental health, Greatsky takes his daily medication. “It's almost like a ceremony for me to take that medication in the morning.” He also burns sage and sweetgrass and says his traditional name, cleansing the space he’s in. Greatsky meditates to center himself and listens to binaural beats. He does breathing exercises and spends time in nature. He participates in ceremonies like sweats as well.

“As Indigenous people, we're very powerful people. We're beautiful people, we're strong people.”

When it comes to inspiration, Greatsky always wanted to be first in something, something he accomplished as the first Indigenous person to attend Post University. He also wants to lead by example. He wants to show youth and others that it is possible to dream big, to create something you want to come true. Greatsky aspires to be the best person he can knowing that there’s a child like him out there waiting for inspiration. He hopes they will hear his story and follow their heart. “That's what really inspires me, is to inspire the next generation of powerful Indigenous youth,” he confides.

His advice for aspiring entrepreneurs is to try to do as much as they can themselves or through their local band employment centre instead of hiring consultants and lawyers. Greatsky also encourages, “really believe in yourself, number one,... and then really inspire to push the boundaries of what's being done,... or be very innovative.” He suggests taking a DIY approach until you can expand your team and delegate tasks you know how to do personally.

As a 27 year old founder, Greatsky is still learning. Speaking to established founders, they have encouraged him to keep learning. “You have to be like a sponge. You just have to absorb everything. If you fail, that's okay. It's okay to fail, and it's a learning thing. My father has this thing, you either win or you learn. You don't win or you lose, you win and you learn, and you learn from your mistakes, and you become stronger. You become a stronger entrepreneur and you'll dominate,” he offers.

His final words of advice are, “Believe in yourself and trust your gut. You have that gut feeling, and if it's right or wrong, you trust your gut. Learn from your mistakes. Be strong and be proud of who you are. Always give back to your community and always give back to your youth and and go be deadly.”

Wanting to make a difference and to destigmatize mental health issues, Joseph Greatsky is developing WhiteFeather AI. Sharing that there’s nothing wrong with having to take medication, he’s also showing that there is lots that is right about Indigenous tech talent. After seeing the suicide crisis in his home community, he’s determined to create change and an AI that can make life better for Indigenous youth.

Thanks to Alison Tedford Seaweed for authoring this article.