Thank you, Mr. Chair and honourable members.
My name is Tony Belcourt. I'm known as an indigenous advocate whose career includes being the founding president of the Native Council of Canada, 1971 to 1974, and the founding president of the Métis Nation of Ontario, 1994 to 2008. I was a member of the board of governors of the Métis National Council and served as the Métis nation ambassador to the United Nations and the Organization of American States. I took part in the negotiations on the draft UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. I am also a writer, producer and director of documentary films. I am semi-retired, and I'm now regarded by many as a Métis elder and indigenous arts and cultural professional.
I was involved in the arts very early in my career. In 1969 and 1970 I was vice-president and managing director of Team Products in Alberta and Mackenzie. Team Products was a co-operative of over 500 Métis and first nations artists and craftspeople from throughout Alberta and the Mackenzie Valley of the NWT.
The production and sale of arts and crafts in the 1960s and 1970s was an essential source of income for our people. It supplemented living off the land and seasonal employment. Today the sale of art and crafts is a mainstay of the indigenous economy in many communities and households. According to 2011 Canadian census data, there were over 136,000 artists in Canada who spent more time at their art than any other occupation. Of those, 3,700 are indigenous artists, representing about 2.7% of all the artists.
Indigenous artists today are achieving great success in the art world. Until a short while ago only regarded as “craft” by such institutions as the National Gallery of Canada, indigenous art can now be found in galleries throughout the world. Art that once sold for less than $100 is now sold in auction houses for tens of thousands of dollars. Indigenous artists now command commissions in the tens of thousands of dollars.
While there has been considerable positive change for indigenous artists who today find markets that were unheard of 50 years ago, problems of ownership and authenticity are manifest. Renowned Canadian aboriginal artist Norval Morrisseau sold some of his paintings on the street for literally pocket change. In 2014 his painting Figures in a garden sold at auction for $50,874 U.S. Norval's story is not unique. Many aboriginal artists struggle in poverty as the resellers, forgers and imposters get rich. A trial in Ontario recently revealed an alleged wellspring of hundreds of fake paintings purported to be the work of the famed Anishinabe artist, and is threatening Norval Morrisseau's legacy.
Noted indigenous artist Simon Brascoupé asked me to bring this message to the committee: “The Copyright Act does not cover 'cultural rights', the intellectual property rights associated with a cultural group, in this case indigenous peoples cultural property held in common, such as distinctive art, design, dance, etc., practised today or in the past. Indigenous peoples may have 'laws' which are practised within a group that may include passing on of intellectual property orally from one generation to another or from one individual to another.”
Cultural rights are recognized by the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, and should be recognized under copyright law. Article 11, sections 1 and 2, read as follows:
1. Indigenous peoples have the right to practise and revitalize their cultural traditions and customs. This includes the right to maintain, protect and develop the past, present and future manifestations of their cultures, such as archaeological and historical sites, artefacts, designs, ceremonies, technologies and visual and performing arts and literature.
2. States shall provide redress through effective mechanisms, which may include restitution, developed in conjunction with indigenous peoples, with respect to their cultural, intellectual, religious and spiritual property taken without their free, prior and informed consent....
Canada is a signatory to the United Nations declaration, and the Prime Minister has pledged to implement its provisions with Canadian law. As an act of reconciliation with indigenous peoples, the Copyright Act must be amended accordingly.
Master carver Derek Manik Edenshaw asked me to bring to your attention this message concerning fraudulent indigenous art: “I come from a family of artists of many mediums. A lot of my cousins, like myself, were fed by native art growing up. Each village on Haida Gwaii depends on the economic benefits of a thriving native art market. People see the success of northwest coast masters and assume that making native art makes us all rich. That's quite simply untrue. There is an automatic industry standard 100% markup on native art. After the overhead costs of tools, materials and workshop space, west coast artists get a very small hourly wage if you broke it down.”
He continues, “There has always been knock-offs and fake first nations art, and why wouldn't there be. It's the best. We have been continuously investigating various methods people use to create and get their fake art to market. These fraudulent pieces are directly taking food out of the mouth of first nations families that have limited options beyond resource extracting jobs, which tear at the core of what makes us indigenous.”
Finally, there is the issue that Canada has yet to amend the Copyright Act to provide for an artist's resale right. Others, including CARFAC and Access Copyright, have appeared before this committee and have made excellent presentations about this matter. However, I would respectfully like to suggest that the recommendation that the artist's resale right be limited to sales through public auction or through galleries would have a serious negative impact on indigenous artists. Most depend on direct sales rather than sale by auction or through galleries.
Recently I've been working with G52, a private company, on a small ad hoc indigenous artist collective to pursue development of an indigenous art registry using blockchain technology. Our goal is a platform that will safely and securely allow indigenous artists to authenticate their work in a user-friendly online environment that foments artist collaboration, display, sale and purchase of art. Indigenous artists would govern the database.
This project is bringing indigenous artists, curators and academics together for a formative meeting in Toronto next month. It is our intention to undertake consultation with artists and members of the indigenous community to create a registry and user platform that will address many of the issues raised before the standing committee. We believe such an indigenous art registry could assist in tracking the sale and resale of indigenous art and, therefore, make possible the extension of the artist's resale right to those artists through this new technological process.
In any amendment to the Copyright Act to provide for an artist's resale right we urge this committee to recommend that the process through which the artist's resale right would apply be worded in such a way as to allow that right to be open to the form of direct sale.
Again, I thank you for the opportunity to appear before this committee, and we embrace the opportunity to work with all of you, and the Government of Canada, in assuring the rights and protections of indigenous artists and their works, which are so clearly an indelible part of our history, culture and our future.
Thank you.