When I thought about what to do to honour this National Day for Truth and Reconciliation I thought about our values and mission at Giving Gifts. We are a store filled with gifts that reflect the passion and courage of artists determined to live their dreams. We want to celebrate them and empower and promote these incredible artists in the best way we know how, to keep buying gifts from them!
We are going to be investing 100% of our sales from today, Thursday, September 30th into placing orders with Indigenous artists. We work with a few incredible ones already and have told them a special very meaningful order from us is coming soon.
Why is this so meaningful? Our wholesale budget is always tight with many competing factors. Trying to balance all our ordering and prioritize what orders we need to place is one of the hardest parts of running a store. I wish I could support everyone and carry everything. I wish I could always order what I wanted when I wanted to, but as I'm learning over almost 10 years in retail, I often need to think with my head more than my heart. There is just never enough money to go around, especially by the end of the month. We also don't have enough space in the store. Every single day, I dream of what else I'd love to have at Giving Gifts and my inbox is filled with artist inquiries I'm holding onto in case I can get to them eventually. It means a lot to a brand to get a wholesale order - it means we over-the-top love them, it means we are ecstatic about what they are creating, it means we believe in them and want to invest in and showcase their art. It's a leap of faith in an artist. When we are specific and thoughtful about which artists we want to order from and support it's a move towards change. It's an acknowledgement in them and an investment in their art and their future. That is why this commitment means so much.
We are proud to invest 100% of our sales from the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation in Indigenous artists in order support them and their work. We'll be placing an order for more of these gorgeous crystal candles from Crowfoot Collective and we hope we'll be able to carry their beautiful jewelry line as well. We want to see Indigenous Artists thriving. By supporting them and saying we see you, we believe in you, we love what you create and we want to pay you, is the best way we know how to make our world a far better place.
Every Child Matters.
To Help Make a Difference today, shop online here or in the store.
Online - anytime on Thursday September, 30th, 2021
Giving Gifts Store Hours - Noon to 5pm
We'll announce the details of the new gifts we were able to purchase and the artists we were able to support on Instagram. Follow us at @givinggiftsca
Indigenous-Owned Brands We Currently Carry at Giving Gifts:
Land of Daughters - Candles & Sprays (Online & In Store)
Williamrae Designs - Wood Signs (Online & In Store - more in store)
Janelle Anakotta - Original Art (Online & In Store - more in store)
Crowfoot Collective - Crystal Candles (In Store only)
We hope to expand our collections with our current artists and find new artists to showcase.
With love, Lisa
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