[Witness speaks in Kwak'wala]
I've introduced myself, Lou-ann Neel. One of the names that I carry is Ika'wega. I come from the Mamalilikulla and the Kwagiulth of the Kwakwaka'wakw, the Kwak'wala-speaking people. I acknowledge the Lax Kw'alaams people for always making me feel so welcome in their ancestral lands.
I want to speak today, mostly from the heart as an artist, about some of the concerns I've been hearing over the last 30 years in my volunteer work with artists all throughout the province of British Columbia.
One of the main concerns we have is the appropriation of our traditional art forms. They have been appropriated across the world. All of these appropriations are impacting directly our ability to participate in our own industry, our own market, and to have control over the things that come from our families and our nations.
Our traditional art forms are owned by our people. They are inherited rights that are passed down from one generation to the next. I come from an artist family. I am now the seventh generation in my family to continue practising our artistic traditions. These rights are inherited through our potlatch system, and they have very strict rules concerning them: who gets to create and the levels and degrees at which people train, become apprenticed and then become mentors themselves.
Some of the concerns that I hear are around the lack of support for indigenous artists across Canada, and in B.C. particularly, where we used to have a provincial arts organization called the B.C. Indian Arts and Crafts Society. That society folded in 1986. We've been 30-plus years without any kind of organizational support for our artists. This is very concerning, because it means that there is no regulatory body or advocacy body watching out for the very things that my colleagues have talked about with this indigenous art registry.
Some of the practical solutions that artists have asked me to share today are around having a really thorough analysis of the Copyright Act, the copyright office, Canadian Heritage, the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, section 35 of the Constitution, the royal commission, the TRC, and in B.C., the Status of the Artist Act—an analysis of how all of these things fit and work together and can create solutions to address some of the concerns we have.
Our artists continue to operate daily at under poverty levels. One of the studies that was done back in 2012 here in B.C. by the Indigenous Tourism Association found that in Vancouver alone, the tourist industry sold artworks, or rather copies of our artworks—some of them are blatant copies and rip-offs—and 88% of that indigenous-themed market has nothing to do with our people, any of our people. We do not see the proceeds coming back to our communities. We don't see royalties. Permissions have not been granted for the use of many of our designs in the first place.
What we want to do is to propose a national indigenous arts service and advocacy organization. Each of the provinces would follow suit and support this, provincially, through their respective arts, culture and language organizations.
Our arts are intertwined with our language and our social, political, economic, cultural, legal, intellectual and governance structures. I want to point out that some of the most popular art forms that are sold in the world today carry symbols and shapes that only come from this part of the world on the coast.
If you look in the ancient history of art all around the world, you will not find the design that we call the “ovoid”. You will not find a split u, and many of the shapes that comprise our traditional art forms. They were invented here. They were created by our people and they continue to be maintained by our people. We want to continue protecting our art for future generations. That's our role, responsibility and obligation as artists.
I want to propose to the committee—I'm not sure about the extent or the scope of your influence on this, but I hope that you'll carry this message to your colleagues in other departments that oversee these kinds of things—that we want to have this national arts organization to work closely with CARFAC and CARCC. We have good relationships with these two organizations and we'd like to continue pursuing that.
We'd like to have a national organization that will educate the public. People take our art because they don't know any different, and they don't know any different because we're not actively and proactively informing Canadian citizens about whether it's appropriate to take designs. We also want to see a great deal more consultation with our artists in respect of the Copyright Act. Currently, the act does not specifically address communally owned property, familial-owned property or properties held by the nation. We want to elaborate on these things, but we feel that a coordinated approach is very much necessary.
I ask the committee to consider making these kinds of recommendations to your colleagues and involving more artists across the country in these discussions. We need to create solutions that are going to enable us to take back our proper roles and responsibilities with respect to our art and continue the tradition into the future.
[Witness speaks in Kwak’wala]
Thank you.