This post is the result of discussions and collaboration with my good friend Adele Arseneau, a Metis artist. Please visit her website, linked at the bottom of this post.
Artists have appropriated other artist's work throughout the ages. Inherent in that understanding is the concept that the new work re-contextualizes which was borrowed to create the new work. So why can we not appropriate Indigenous ideas and images into our own work?
Artists have appropriated other artist's work throughout the ages. Inherent in that understanding is the concept that the new work re-contextualizes which was borrowed to create the new work. So why can we not appropriate Indigenous ideas and images into our own work?
Western societies generally believe that all cultural property is inanimate (not living) and can be sold, bought or exchanged for monetary value. This is in direct contrast to many Indigenous societies, who believe that cultural property can also be animate (living). This animate cultural property can encompass traditional knowledge, designs, songs, dances, totems, masks, crests, among many others, and cannot be separated from the original owner without compromising the whole. Using the term ‘cultural belongings’ attempts to encompass this expanded understanding what is meant by cultural property. For example, a museum may own a heritage item, but it belongs to the Indigenous group.
This wider understanding has implications. Indigenous people around the world are reclaiming their identities and rights using copyright laws, intellectual property rights, and using the courts, including the court of public opinion. Museums are changing how they display their collections following consultations with Indigenous groups and sometimes returning these cultural belongings back to the original owners or agreeing to a shared arrangement. Indigenous people are also working actively against appropriation of their culture.
Artists who use Indigenous elements in their work and sell this work to the public, should consider how their art will be viewed in time and from the multiple perspectives. Will the discourse be about how well the image has been painted, or about how the artist has appropriated an Indigenous cultural belonging? Will the buyer still enjoy the work knowing that it incorporates appropriated images that belong to another? If the answer is in doubt, consider leaving Indigenous designs and images to those who own them. Personally as an artist, I'd like to be known for my work and its originality, not for what was taken from others - what about you?
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