A modest initiative introduced five years ago promises to be a major draw at the 2025 One World Bazaar, which opens Sept. 18 and runs until Nov. 23.
The popular annual bazaar, now in its 43rd season, features thousands of unique artisanal items from around the world. Using fair trade practices, the event at the Bakker family barn near Manotick provides artisans with a living wage while forging connections between customers from Ottawa and area with a unique international marketplace.
In 2020, organizers introduced a few live musical performances to compliment the smorgasbord of gorgeous international artisanal products for sale at the bazaar. The initiative gained traction, expanded and diversified bit by bit, and this year takes the form of seven free “cultural weekends,” each celebrating a different country or region from India to Germany to Latin America and beyond with food, music and more. The remaining three weekends include live music, an indigenous hoop dancer, a henna artist and more.
“The programming I think matches so perfectly our values of celebrating culture and beauty throughout the world and highlighting different communities and cultures,” says owner Anneka Bakker, who took over the business from her parents, Dick and Peggy Bakker, in 2021.
“It allows people to experience the world in an afternoon and to shop it and to explore the flavours through cuisine and culture through dance and song and just have a nice fall day out in Manotick Station.”
The bazaar’s first programming partnership was with Indonesia, which continues to have a weekend, Oct. 3-5, spotlighting the country.
The next year, a Day of the Dead event was added to celebrate Mexico. Running Oct. 31-Nov. 2 this year, it includes live performances and a chance to experience the traditions of the Day of the Dead, which is widely celebrated in Mexico as a way to respect and remember family and others who have died.
Growing partnerships with communities and embassies have been key to expanding the popular cultural weekends, which says Bakker.
“People have been supportive and really just love to showcase their culture and their heritage in a different venue and to share that with their native population that lives here but also with the Canadian population that might not have travelled there yet.”
The heart of the bazaar is, of course, the cornucopia of artisanal items overflowing the shelves, floors and everywhere in between. Clothing and accessories, decor, musical instruments (kids would love the bamboo noisemakers handcrafted in Bali), linens, indoor and outdoor furniture, jewelry (the gemstone earrings and pendants are exquisite), tableware… the list goes on and on.
Asked what’s new and especially noteworthy at the 2025 One World Bazaar, Bakker says, “We’ve continued to make inroads in India. The furniture out of there is just beautiful. They repurpose old shutters or windows or pieces of furniture and encase them in new wood to give them stability, so you’re getting what looks like a really old piece but it’s structurally sound. They’re all one of a kind, all drop-dead gorgeous. We did an entire shipping container of Indian furniture this year. Those are the real showstoppers for sure.”
The bazaar has also sourced new items from Indigenous tribes in Panama, Costa Rica and El Salvador along with new clothing collections, products with mushroom and woodland animal themes, and much more from many other locales.
The only challenge shopping at One World Bazaar is knowing when to stop.
Bakker says she and her husband, David White, spend three months every winter hunting down items far and wide and building relationships with new artisans.
“It’s incredible to see the life cycle of these goods go from raw materials and meeting the people who are taking those raw materials and making them into something beautiful through to… having those pieces find their new homes and showcasing that culture to the local community here.”
“I’m a huge proponent of international travel that helps us all understand the human condition better and makes us all better human beings in the process,” she says. “Any way to encourage people to live a bit more outside our boxes here. I think that’s what the bazaar is really moving towards: come shop the world under one roof and experience it.”
Attending the 2025 One World Bazaar
When: Friday through Sunday until Nov. 23 (also open Thursday, Sept. 18 and 25 as well as Thanksgiving Monday)
Hours: 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Where: 6110 Mitch Owens Rd.
Information: oneworldbazaar.ca
