Indigenous Art and Canada’s Journey towards Reconciliation
Indigenous art is having its moment in Canada. On Friday, 8th November, the National Gallery of Canada opened its second exhibition in its series of contemporary international indigenous art presentations. Entitled Àbadakone, Algonquin for ‘continuous fire,’ the exhibit features contemporary indigenous art: executed in a variety of mediums by 70 artists hailing from all over the world. The National Gallery is not the only museum placing indigenous art in the spotlight. Feheley Fine Arts Gallery in Toronto is a thriving gallery specialising in Inuit art from the Canadian Arctic, and Sacred Fire Productions in Quebec was founded in 2012 to ‘build bridges between indigenous artists in Quebec and audiences of all ages and background.’
The popularity of indigenous art in Canada is accompanying the country’s attempts to reckon with its history of cruelty towards its indigenous peoples. City councilors in Victoria, British Columbia voted last year to remove a statue of Canada’s first prime minister, Sir John A. Macdonald, because of Macdonald’s role in promoting violence against indigenous peoples. As prime minister, Macdonald oversaw the drafting of the Indian Act, which allowed the federal government to control central aspects of aboriginal life, including education, land, and status. Particularly controversial were the residential schools run by the federal government between 1879 and 1996, in which indigenous children were taught to forget their language and culture. In some cases, students were abused by staff members. In 2015, a report by Canada’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission found that the policy of separating indigenous children from their families and communities to attend these schools ‘can be best described as cultural genocide.’
Canada is currently undergoing a process of ‘reconciliation,’ seeking to make amends for its past treatment of indigenous peoples. Current Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has made reconciliation central to his image, policy platform, and government. Yet these efforts have been tainted recently by the resignation of the only indigenous member of his cabinet and pictures that have surfaced of Trudeau in blackface. Trudeau’s policies have brought much-needed attention to communities marginalized and shut out of the national conversation for decades, but the recent blackface scandal in particular casts doubt on whether his concern is genuine or merely a way to gain political points. Yet, progress is still being made: in history classes at Canadian schools, children are now taught about their government’s efforts to eradicate indigenous cultures. Moreover many public meetings across Canada start with the acknowledgement that meeting attendees are standing on ‘traditional indigenous lands.’ These efforts make the crucial first step of acknowledging and discussing the national sins of the past, but words do little if not accompanied by action.
Art has long been an integral part of indigenous culture in Canada and has a history of national recognition. The Indigenous Art Centre was established by the federal government in 1965 to ‘support the creation, preservation, and promotion of contemporary Canadian Indigenous Art.’ Inuit art in particular has been revered since the mid-20th century for its simple but powerful depictions of traditional life in the Arctic. Kenojuak Ashevak, Jessie Oonark, Karoo Ashevak are some of the pioneers of modern Inuit art whose work has been shown around the world. Art has always been considered central to Inuit identity, alongside a traditional way of life focused on hunting, fishing and being ‘on the land.’ In the 1950s, this traditional way of life faded, as the government used promises of a school and permanent housing to encourage Inuits to settle in a town. Occasionally, government officials even shot the dogs Inuits use to travel by dogsled, stranding them in Cape Dorset. But the art remained, and today, towns like Cape Dorset, Nunavut are known primarily for their artists. In the center of Cape Dorset is a new $9.8 million culture center with art studios and a gallery space for local artists. This institution is run by the West Baffin Eskimo Cooperation which was founded in 1959 to oversee art sales, promote Cape Dorset artists to galleries, museums, and collectors, and to invest the profits back into the town. The co-op is run by an Inuit-led board. Ooloosie Saila is one of Cape Dorset’s emerging artists who has made use of the new culture center. At the age of 27, she is one of the youngest artists to have her work shown at Feheley Fine Arts in Toronto where her prints and drawings with her signature ‘bold use colours and composition’ reach the eyes of art collectors from Canada and abroad.
Yet, some worry the nationwide attention given to indigenous art by the media and prominent art collectors in Canada can mask the very real problems still plaguing indigenous communities in Canada, which many feel the government still is not doing enough to remedy. Cape Dorset, the hub of Inuit art, is also home to levels of poverty, alcoholism and abuse which are much higher than the national average. In Cape Dorset, costs of living are high, as food often must be flown into the remote community, and income sources are few and far between. Indigenous people in Canada as a whole still have poorer health than the general Canadian population, usually linked to social factors and the lower incomes of indigenous peoples (there is an estimated 25% income gap between indigenous and non-indigenous people). They have lower education levels, higher rates of unemployment and incarceration, and often have to deal with inadequate or even dangerous public housing. Suicide rates for First Nations youth are estimated to be five to seven times higher than for non-Aboriginal youth, and the Inuit youth suicide rate ranks among the highest in the world at eleven times that of the general population. Many Canadians still know very little about indigenous life; two-thirds of Canadians live within 60 miles of the U.S. border, a world away from places like Cape Dorset where these issues are playing out every day.
For residents of a place internationally recognized as a symbol of the success of Inuit art, the government’s lack of action means almost 90% of Cape Dorset residents live in public housing, which has three-year waiting list and is often crowded and run-down. Local artist Ooloosie Salia has never heard of the government’s ‘reconciliation’ policy. If anything, the popularity of indigenous art that is sweeping the Canadian cultural scene can distract from the fact that even in artistically successful places like Cape Dorset, poverty and fixable social issues are still deeply rooted and receive little attention from the federal government. Johnny Pootoogook is an aspiring artist who works on his art in the Cape Dorset culture centre, drawing memories from his recent incarceration. Like many of his neighbours, Mr. Pootoogook has suffered from depression, and has experience with abuse and alcoholism. He says, ‘I want to tell the life of the Inuit up here. Not everything is good.’
However, art can provide a valuable source of income for indigenous communities and more importantly, can help bridge the gap between indigenous and non-indigenous Canadians. Ian Harvey, a novice art collector attending Ooloosie Saila’s show at Feheley Fine Arts, acknowledged he’d never met an Inuit, a common experience among the non-indigenous Canadians attending the show. At the opening of the Àbadakone exhibit at the National Gallery of Canada, Ursula Johnson, a Mi’kmaw artist from Nova Scotia, explained to New York Times reporter Ian Austen the difficulty and value in showcasing indigenous artists at places like the National Gallery. She says, “It’s work for us to constantly try to break down stereotypes. But if non-indigenous people come in and say: ‘Wow, I had no idea that this existed. Can you excuse my naivete or my ignorance of not knowing the history of this tribal culture and explain some of this to me?’—that’s totally ok, because then we’ll actually begin to make change together.”
