About Us

Our mission

ARAIC empowers Aboriginal retailers and entrepreneurs, cultivates retail leadership, fosters learning, advocates for retailer interests, and create pathways to market, all to drive economic development, equity, and social impact.

Why?

It’s Time!

Aboriginal retailers currently face significant challenges due to inflation, rising interest rates, and supply chain issues, which have impacted both discretionary customer spending and business input costs. These factors threaten the sustainability and profitability of their businesses.

For Aboriginal retailers to grow we need to be included in the wider retail sector and we look to opportunities to engage and collaborate, but these are not without their challenges. Aboriginal retailers require the support of the wider retail industry and a dedicated organisation to advocate, broker, encourage and collaborate to create a more inclusive retail sector. Without industry focussed support, Aboriginal retailers will not be able to scale their businesses and participate in an export economy with the industry backing they require.

The challenges of our sector require targeted support and initiatives that recognise and respect the unique needs and strengths of Aboriginal businesses in retail, without dedicated a support organisation to facilitate this change we are unlikely to see the progress the sector strives for.