Je’aa hanach’e
Hi - my name is Kashtin Apsassin. I am the owner/designer behind Ohtisii.
About me
I was born in 1995 - that makes me 29 turning 30 in 2025. I am Dane-zaa, from the late Edward Apsassin Family of Blueberry River First Nations. My father was full Dane-zaa, my mother was not. As a result, for all of my life I have sought a feeling of belonging, feeling like I was too “white” to be native, or too “native” to be white. We all have our journeys of identity and belonging, but mine very much has been walking with one foot in two worlds. My journey of reconnecting to my culture under this context is one of embracing the people, my family, that currently still live on our traditional territory. In many respects, this “born of two worlds and belonging wholly to neither” has been a privilege that has given me an increasingly common perspective - fusing traditional and contemporary.
Why I started Ohtisii
The contemporary luxury space is entirely dominated by eurocentric nomenclature. French, Spanish, Italian (etc.) dominate the languages we see when we think of luxury. Think “maison”, “haute couture”, for example. Under brands in exquisite fonts, we see “Firenze”, “Milan”, “Paris”, “Made in Italy”, “Made in France”, and so on.
Our languages deserve the same reverence.
Not only that, but these exercises in placing our languages in luxury spaces can serve a plethora of purposes. I want our languages to be aspirational - something you see as THE mark for quality, luxury. I want our languages to be something that speaks to quality, authenticity. I want “yiidzęʔ nahaadane ghaa” (for the future of our people) in a gorgeous, sans-serif typeface, well kerned, gold embossed on leather.
Language Reclamation
I also wanted to play a role in linguistic reclamation. So few people speak Dane-zaa Zaage (the people’s language), that it increasingly becomes our responsibility to dig, to learn, to fight to keep it alive. A language is so critical to identity - it informs how we see the world, how we construct thoughts in our head, how we relate to time, space, and identity. With each piece I create, I have the opportunity to share in preserving words, concepts, thoughts. For this, I am incredibly grateful to be a part.
Living my values
Our world is increasingly surrounded by and facing the consequences of a severe lack of corporate accountability, corporate responsibility, unethical business practices, and pure profit maximization as business strategy. With both a Master of Global Business and Bachelor of Commerce in International Business, I am increasingly disillusioned with the extractive focus of so many of the industries of the world. We have lost our connection to place, to land, to each other. In Ohtisii, I get to live my values, I get to challenges these norms, I get to be the change I want to see in the world. I am able to pursue exclusively organic growth, source from Canadian-owned businesses, sacrifice potential profit for integrity and artistry, and embrace patient, thoughtful production.
Everything is figure-out-able
Lastly, with all of these things in place, I have come to learn that everything is figure-out-able (a quote I saw on a youtube video). If I have these ideas, these thoughts, these values, I am able to exercise my free will (and resources) to start slow, small, and figure things out. I am creative by nature, and it is a gift to have the opportunity to learn to work with wood, to learn to work with leather, and to learn how to turn ideas into reality. All it takes is trying, failing, and trying again.
So, I started Ohtisii - and I just kept trying new things. And it just kept growing and becoming something that felt special to me that I wanted to share with the world.
And you, the world, have given me the opportunity to share - for which I am incredibly grateful. Thank you.
