Two years after it launched, Canada’s first fully Indigenous-owned department store has closed its doors, leaving the owner $800,000 in debt, thanks in part to the denial of a City of Toronto grant.
The problem began when Chelsee-Marie Pettit, the founder of Aaniin, applied for a city grant to showcase the work of Indigenous artists at her Eaton Centre pop-up.
Pettit says she thought the city initially approved her application, prompting her to extend the lease on her store. But then an anonymous Indigenous jury, which has the final say in the grant’s approval, denied her funding, creating an added layer of financial burdens.
Aaniin’s closure highlights a broader gap in how Indigenous businesses are supported, Pettit says. While funding exists for artists and early-stage ventures, she says for-profit companies — especially successful ones like — are often overlooked. This, she contends, makes it more difficult for Indigenous-owned businesses to sustain and grow.
“It’s like people want to see us having to overcome every single barrier,” said Pettit, an Anishinaabe entrepreneur and member of Aamjiwnaang First Nation. “They want to support the ‘Indigenous struggle.’ They need to see us struggle or else we don’t deserve support.”
Back in November, Pettit says she was approved for the Indigenous Arts & Culture Fund, a city grant that supports projects boosting the visibility and creation of Indigenous-led art and culture.
Aaniin, which originated in the Stakt market in the city’s west end, created an opportunity for various Indigenous vendors to profit from a wider market. Vendors included Cheekbone Beauty, Moccasin Joe Artisan Coffee Roasters, Urban Native Era, Outlier Leather, and many other native brands from across North America.
Pettit said the application was made to obtain a grant for four Indigenous artist showcases inside Aaniin, including for herself as one of the artists. While the city’s Indigenous Arts & Culture Fund does not support for-profit organizations, Pettit said she thought the application was approved because she wasn’t using it for her business, but rather for artists whose goods were sold at her store.
One of the stipulations for receiving the $120,000 worth of grants was that Aaniin’s pop-up be operating in February. Thinking she had been approved because the city told her that her application “received a high score,” Pettit says, she extended an expensive lease at the Eaton Centre in order to meet funding requirements. But after extending the store’s lease, she received news that a panel of anonymous Indigenous community members, who make the final decision, denied her grant application.
Pettit says she was forced to absorb the showcase’s costs, though she took on the task with expectations that it would be subsidized by the grants.
The Star asked the city to confirm whether Aaniin’s application was initially approved and later rejected by an Indigenous jury, as Pettit alleges, and whether the decision was related to her business being for-profit. The city did not directly answer those questions.
Instead, in an email, the city highlighted that the Indigenous Arts and Culture Fund receives more applications than it can fund each year, adding that staff are available to help applicants strengthen proposals.
“Notably, in this case, independent of the grant application, the City’s economic development team reached out to the firm to support their work via social media marketing,” said the city’s statement.
The Star also asked to be put in touch with the anonymous Indigenous jury who made the final decision, but the city said it is “not able to facilitate interviews with individual jury members or comment on the assessment of specific applications.”
Following a cycle of disappointment associated with grants — most of which Pettit says were due to Aaniin’s perceived success in its freshman year — the store owner has grown “exhausted” with the process.
Today, Pettit is $800,000 in debt.
About $160,000 of this comprises outstanding vendor invoices — a debt Pettit says she’s quickly balancing — but only a small fraction is owed to Indigenous vendors who participated in Aaniin’s pop-up.
Pettit is now offering Aaniin’s in-house branded items at a 60 per cent discount on the store’s website. Though the Eaton Centre location has officially closed, she says Aaniin’s online presence is expected to continue until the end of month “or early May.”
For Jessica McKenzie, the owner of Future Kokum, which has collaborated with Aaniin since it opened, the closure “hits close to home.”
“As an Indigenous beadworker, it’s really sad to see Aaniin close after five years,” she told the Star.
McKenzie added that losing such spaces is especially difficult because they create an environment “for our cultures and communities to be seen and heard.”
“Spaces like (that) were more than just a store,” McKenzie said. “They gave Indigenous artists a place to share our work, support ourselves through our craft, and be part of a growing Indigenous economy.”
