From Tulita to Toronto, NWT artists take over Eaton Centre

“My cup is full,” said April Bell. So was Toronto’s Eaton Centre.

One of Canada’s biggest and busiest malls was packed as NWT artists and crafters joined dozens of other Indigenous sellers in hosting a marketplace attached to the weekend’s Indigenous Fashion Arts festival.

Bell lucked out. Her stall, Et’oa’s Earrings, ended up right at a major intersection where hundreds of people an hour streamed in from one of the mall’s main boulevards.

“It’s been fantastic. There has been so much support for Indigenous artists. People have been lining up and asking so many questions and supporting all the art that we brought down,” Bell, a Yellowknife resident from the Jean Marie River First Nation, told Cabin Radio on Saturday.

“A lot of people want to know where I’m from, who the family is, and what kind of textiles we use.

“The energy everybody’s bringing and the different designs are incredible.”

Beyond Bell’s stall, a once-vacant mall unit opened out into avenues of other sellers and a bustling crowd.

Even at the rear of the unit, where some of the NWT’s other sellers were based, there was steady foot traffic – although Kátł’odeeche First Nation member Nancy Norn-Lennie, right at the back, said her space felt “kind-of quiet.”

Not that Norn-Lennie seemed to mind too much. She said the experience was overwhelming enough even without being nearer the torrent of the main thoroughfare.

“This is my first time. The only thing that I’ve done is sell my crafts at a small Christmas bazaar in Tulita. And then I’ve branched out to this,” she chuckled.

You need endurance to sell for a weekend at the Eaton Centre.

Both Norn-Lennie and Ruth Modeste, a Fort Smith resident originally from Ulukhaktok, noted the intense opening hours: sellers had been setting up early in the morning, the stalls welcomed their first customers at 9am, and there would be people coming in all the way to 9pm. After that? An evening fashion show. Then do it all again the next day.

“I’m working on a pair of earrings because I’ve been sitting here for quite a while,” said Norn-Lennie. “Then I have tickets to go to the fashion show. So that’s pretty exciting, but it’s a long day.”

“It’s definitely a new experience, because I’ve never sat at a table this long,” joked Modeste.

“My ultimate goal coming here is seeing how the fashion shows work. One of my goals is to be able to do bigger work like clothing. Ideally, I would open my supplies store full-time and do my art on the side.”

Mishelle Lavoie, from Inuvik, knew what she was signing up for.

This was Lavoie’s second year at the event. She signed up for her first appearance after seeing other NWT artists and people she followed on Instagram in attendance.

“I thought, ‘You know what? I’m going to try this myself.’ At the time, I was kind-of new to beading and the first time I attended was the first festival I went to,” she said.

“I also did the Great Northern Arts Festival up in Inuvik and it’s addictive, to attend these things and to meet everyone. It drew me in, seeing that other people were doing it.”

For Laska Nerysoo, also from Inuvik, this was her major marketplace debut.

“I was kind-of anxious when I was leaving home, thinking I would have to travel so far, but I’m happy that I came because it’s a great experience,” Nerysoo said.

Nerysoo, who describes herself as a proud Gwich’in artist, works on a new collection of jewellery every couple of months.

“Earrings are the biggest thing right now,” she said at her stall on Saturday. “That’s mainly what everyone is interested in.”

Next to her was Treyleen Neyelle, a Yellowknife resident originally from Délı̨nę.

“I’ve been really overwhelmed since I got accepted in January. I’ve been sewing since then and I was really nervous, but I was also really excited to be here and experience this,” Neyelle said.

At her stall, people from across Canada and the world congregating at the mall could find beaded earrings sewn on traditionally hand-tanned moosehide, hand-dyed rabbit-fur poms, quillwork, and jewellery fashioned from antlers gifted by her dad.

“There were so many people that walked in and it’s just really good to interact with them,” said Neyelle.

“I’m really shy but this is a good opportunity for me to be out there.”

The opportunity was so good that Debbie McNeely, from Fort Good Hope and now living in Norman Wells, found her stall almost completely cleaned out by mid-afternoon on Saturday – with all of Sunday still to go.

“It’s going really good. I had a lot of crafts and everything went, just like that,” said McNeely.

“I had a couple of purses, a couple of card holders and keychains and little rosary bags, and everything’s pretty-well gone.

“I don’t know what I’m going to do tomorrow. Just sit here, I guess!”

New Yellowknife store

Bell’s experience was also helping to inspire her latest venture back home: a new store in Yellowknife.

She previously ran popular pop-up shops at the city’s Booster Juice. All of the products left Booster Juice in March and the new location opened in the nearby Center Ice Plaza, next to the new Freshslice Pizza franchise, in early May.

“We wanted to go bigger,” said Bell of the move.

“Now, we have dedicated staff and a storefront. We’re open seven days a week, 10am to 6pm, with what you would have seen at the pop-up shops and more – we started supplying beads as well. We’ll have everything that you would need to start beading or as a longtime beader.

“The community’s starting to realize the store is there now. It’s been great. Lots of people have been coming out. Obviously, the Eaton Centre is a bigger scale, but it gives us great ideas and to realize you’re supported no matter where you go – like, we’ve worked so hard to get here – we just feel appreciated.”