Evidence of meeting #20 for Canadian Heritage in the 39th Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was report.
A recording is available from Parliament.
4:20 p.m.
Conservative
4:20 p.m.
Manager, Indian and Inuit Art Centres, Corporate Services Sector, Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development
No.
4:20 p.m.
Manager, Indian and Inuit Art Centres, Corporate Services Sector, Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development
No, it's a different area. Inuit art and first nations art are very different; Inuit art is very controlled by art dealers and the art market, so it's a very different area. It would be nice; I'd like to see that. I'd like to see the equivalent for first nations.
4:20 p.m.
Conservative
Ed Fast Conservative Abbotsford, BC
Also, I have a question regarding the process of how the Indian art acquisition program actually works. That program allows you to purchase Indian art, and Inuit art presumably.
4:20 p.m.
Manager, Indian and Inuit Art Centres, Corporate Services Sector, Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development
And Métis art.
4:20 p.m.
Conservative
Ed Fast Conservative Abbotsford, BC
And Métis art.
Do you also facilitate the sale of other art to the public?
4:20 p.m.
Manager, Indian and Inuit Art Centres, Corporate Services Sector, Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development
No.
4:20 p.m.
Conservative
4:20 p.m.
Manager, Indian and Inuit Art Centres, Corporate Services Sector, Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development
It's strictly for the collection, yes.
And the artists came up with criteria so that 60% is for emerging or new artists and 40% is for mid-career and prominent artists—and we still keep that division. We make sure there's regional representation and representation by gender as well, and sometimes we have regional juries. If we find, for example, that the north seems to be badly represented—the Yukon, the NWT, and Quebec and the Maritimes—we will have special juries every now and then just to get more from that region.
I didn't have time to show you this as well, but on the Indian/Inuit art site for Indian and Northern Affairs, we have the results of the last acquisition, which was fiscal year 2005-06. And you'll see photographs as well.
Someone was asking how we could better promote or show the art to Canadians. It's not easy; you need money. For example, just to show work on our Internet site from the artists we have—there are 34 works—we had to pay each artist for the right to show their work for one year. If we want to show other art, we have to pay the artists as well.
So to try to show a collection of 4,000 pieces would be phenomenal; we couldn't afford it.
4:20 p.m.
Conservative
4:20 p.m.
Manager, Indian and Inuit Art Centres, Corporate Services Sector, Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development
We do respect copyright.
4:20 p.m.
Liberal
Tina Keeper Liberal Churchill, MB
That darn Copyright Act!
Thank you, Ms. Gray.
It was really exciting to hear your presentation, and I'd just like to make a comment on what you were saying about the response by the community, when you were responding to Mr. Angus' question about the department and the ownership that people feel about the collection. As a first nations person, I know there is the sense that preservation is really important because we don't have our own archives in our community. I think that component of it is really critical to the communities, be they first nations, Inuit, or Métis.
I'd like to go back to the mandate you were talking about. One of the statements you made was that you don't purchase art except from artists who are alive.
4:20 p.m.
Manager, Indian and Inuit Art Centres, Corporate Services Sector, Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development
That's right.
4:20 p.m.
Liberal
Tina Keeper Liberal Churchill, MB
I'd like to ask you about that, because there are significant pieces of work that come from artists who have passed on. In terms of looking at the different aboriginal groups and how they have contributed to the development of the art form—because western art forms are recent, and so it's interesting in terms of the western conventions and how they started and how we've moved through those processes in a very short period of time—some of the artists with very prominent places in those art histories have now passed on.
Could you speak about that a bit?
4:25 p.m.
Manager, Indian and Inuit Art Centres, Corporate Services Sector, Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development
We are often told we should not be crossing over into somebody else's mandate, and when you go to Treasury Board to get authority they make sure you're not copying or duplicating somebody else's work. Other art institutions, such as the Museum of Civilization, the regional museums, provincial museums and the National Art Gallery, all have the mandate to purchase from deceased artists or from artists who have passed on.
We can't, because our mandate or authority is only for emerging artists, and so they have to be alive.
4:25 p.m.
Liberal
Tina Keeper Liberal Churchill, MB
How is it that your mandate on emerging artists doesn't cross over with the Canada Arts Council, which does a lot of work on emerging and mid-career artists?
4:25 p.m.
Manager, Indian and Inuit Art Centres, Corporate Services Sector, Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development
We work closely together. It's just for the collection, remember. The Canada Council gives grants. We don't give grants; we just purchase art for the collection.
4:25 p.m.
Liberal
Tina Keeper Liberal Churchill, MB
Okay. I'd like to ask as well about a statement you made in the beginning about “Gathering Strength”. Can you explain that? I'm surprised you're still using the term “Gathering Strength”—
4:25 p.m.
Manager, Indian and Inuit Art Centres, Corporate Services Sector, Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development
I know. I am too.
4:25 p.m.
Liberal
Tina Keeper Liberal Churchill, MB
You're the one office, maybe, within INAC that is still holding on to “Gathering Strength”. Could you explain what that was and how you feel that it applies to your work?
4:25 p.m.
Manager, Indian and Inuit Art Centres, Corporate Services Sector, Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development
Well, “Gathering Strength” really stressed a collaboration, a partnership with first nations. I was told there are strict rules in addressing this committee, so I didn't want to make anything up. I went to our Internet site and went to our publications and got the information that's there. Unfortunately, it still mentioned “Gathering Strength”, and that was the only reason I used it.
It's something that applies to our program mandate and how we do things.
4:25 p.m.
Liberal
Tina Keeper Liberal Churchill, MB
So it's the principles under “Gathering Strength”, which really isn't part of INAC'S policy development anymore. Those are the principles that you feel guide your....
4:25 p.m.
Manager, Indian and Inuit Art Centres, Corporate Services Sector, Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development
Yes.
4:25 p.m.
Liberal
Tina Keeper Liberal Churchill, MB
I'd like to ask one more question. I'm still a little confused about your mandate, because you talked about Alex Janvier and Norval Morrisseau, and these are pre-eminent artists. I suppose you're talking about travelling exhibits or promoting their work, but I'm really confused about how the mandate doesn't address the art history of aboriginal artists.