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2 Annual Symposium on the Future Imaginary Future Imaginary Symposium Kelowna - Heather Igloliorte Heather Igloliorte (transcript) 2nd Annual Symposium on the Future Imaginary hosted by University of British Columbia Okanagan & Initiative for Indigenous Futures 5 August 2016 Kelowna, British Colombia video available at http://abtec.org/iif/symposia/2nd-annual-symposium-on-the-future-imaginary/ [email protected] 03/02/17 Page 1 of 12 Future Imaginary Symposium Kelowna - Heather Igloliorte [pause] 00:30 Speaker 1: We now have the lovely Heather Igloliorte who will be speaking. She is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Art History at Concordia University where she holds a New Scholar Research Chair in Indigenous Art History and Community Engagement. Heather's research, teaching, and curatorial practices center on native north American visual performance and new media art, the global exhibition of indigenous arts and culture, and issues of colonization, sovereignty and the three Rs, resistance, resilience, and resurgence. I'm really happy to welcome you here today, Heather, and looking... She's always a good speaker. [chuckle] So, I'm looking forward to it. Again. [applause] 01:20 Heather Igloliorte: Another no-pressure introduction. [laughter] Ulaakut, good morning everyone. I won't repeat all the same thanks as acknowledgements as our colleagues have already done. I think they've done a beautiful job. I wasn't sure if I missed the recognition of Ayumi as our organizer and I just wanted to give her a shout out for doing a wonderful job this weekend. [applause] 01:45 HI: My name is Heather Igloliorte. I am Inuit from Nunatsiavut, which is the Inuit region of Labrador, it's in the Eastern Arctic. My father is an Inuk and my mother is a Newfoundlander, and I teach at Concordia University now. Today, I wanna talk about the future of Inuit art. In January of 2016 this year, I was invited to participate on a discussion panel called, 'Finding New Markets and Opportunities for Northern Artists' during a session called 'Economic Development in the North' at the Northern Lights Trade Show. Now I assume that most of you don't know what the Northern Lights Trade Show is. It's a very strange event. It is largely... It's a very, very high registration cost, several... It's probably $700 or $800 for regular delegates. It is an opportunity for people that are in resource development in the Arctic to get together with energy companies and so on, and they do this high-level conference. But they have this sort of siloed arts conference that happens at the same time culminating in an arts and crafts fair that happens on the last day of this weekend in Ottawa that's every other January. So it happened in 2016, it'll happen again in 2018. 02:55 HI: And it's kind of a strange event that I never want to miss, because Inuit artists from all across the Arctic come down for this event. And so, it's a great opportunity to meet and network and see and share with a lot of people that you want to be around. They have... There's always a huge musical showcase. They do a fashion show. They do spend, invest tens of thousands of dollars in this artistic component. But usually, there's this massive conference happening at the Congress Center in Ottawa. What's the big one that looks like it's from outer space? It's very futuristic. Does 03/02/17 Page 2 of 12 Future Imaginary Symposium Kelowna - Heather Igloliorte anybody know? Anyway, it's on the [03:28] ____, that big conference center. And then they have this two rooms where there's a little side conference for people who are working in the arts. And so this past year was the first time that they ever invited some arts people, myself and two colleagues to be in the big conference. So we were invited to the Economic Development at the North Panel. 03:46 HI: I say that like it's a big deal, but actually I was invited to give a six-minute paper, [chuckle] so I was one-third of a 20-minute presentation with two other 20-minute presentations with three people each. So the other panellists were... So in this Economic Development panel, there were... One of the other sessions, all about Parks Canada and Ecotourism. And then there was an arts one that was myself, and Stefan St-Laurent from Ottawa who's a curator, who just did this great show in collaboration with the Nunavut Arts and Crafts Association, NACA. And then the last panel was marketing and communications. So it was a strange run in. So in this context to an audience of Inuit artists, but also Arctic movers and shakers, investors and so on, I gave a six- minute presentation. I was the only Inuk on the panel, so I gave an eight-minute presentation. [chuckle] I took it... I knew there was two more minutes. And so, [chuckle] what I wanna do is share with you this six minutes-ish that I gave to them, and then I wanna talk about what has happened since that panel. So keep in mind this is for that audience and not necessarily for this audience. 04:57 HI: We've been invited to speak today about how Inuit art and craft, and how Inuit artists and crafts people have been and may continue to participate in the contemporary art scene and in the art market, which exists in an increasingly globalized and interconnected world. It is undeniable that the arts have played an important role in the four Inuit regions of Canada, while historically some areas have benefited from the arts industry more than others, all of our communities today face similar challenges. Access to high-quality materials, supplies and equipment, the high cost of shipping to and from the north, the need for safety training in equipment, the desire for professional development in education, and the discovery of new markets in a challenging economic climate. I am most personally familiar with the art histories and industries of Nunatsiavut and Nunavut, so I'm gonna speak today primarily from that perspective. I hope I do not overgeneralize in my comments about the arts in Inuit Nunangat, which is all of the four regions in Canada. 06:00 HI: I think that the field of Inuit art and the people supporting the arts industry are already doing many things right. Again, this was for them. [chuckle] And doing the best possible work under a variety of unique circumstances. The Nunavut Arts and Crafts Association for example, NACA, that I just mentioned, has been innovative in developing new training and workshop opportunities for Nunavummiut. Not only in artistic practice, but also in very practical areas, like teaching sewing machine repair and having sewing machine repairment comfort communities, which is a hugely, vastly important service that they provide. They've also done things like develop guidelines on how to price artwork, so artists know how not to undervalue their work. NACA's advocacy, promotion and education activities, which address some of the problems of the North from the North make a valuable contribution to both the economy, as well as to the wellbeing of the artist that they support. Avataq's art secretariat that's in Nunavik, which is Quebec, and officers have been implementing many of their own programs and supports for Nunavik's many talented artists in Nunatsiavut, that's Labrador, we are beginning to develop our very tailored strategies for Labrador Inuit cultural and economic development. Even so, I think there was one major area, in which we could all do better. 07:13 HI: Now, I am by no means an expert in art marketing, that's the title of the panel, but I am 03/02/17 Page 3 of 12 Future Imaginary Symposium Kelowna - Heather Igloliorte an art historian at a curator of contemporary and historical Canadian aboriginal art and I have interviewed and researched the work of many Northern artists, in particular. And one question that has always vexed me is, "Why don't more contemporary Inuit artists and craftspeople access the same kinds of opportunities that are available to all Canadian artists?" There are so many grants, scholarships, awards, artist residencies, open calls for artwork submissions, many of these things are specifically for indigenous Canadians. First Nations and Metis artists living in Southern Canada regularly access these opportunities, and yet I believe if we had the statistics from our funding bodies, we would find that Inuit are just not applying for these opportunities regularly. Why is this? 08:05 HI: In 2011, while I was undertaking my doctoral research at home in Nunatsiavut, I asked every one of the 60 or so artists and craftspeople I interviewed if they had ever applied for a grant, a scholarship, a residency, etcetera. Only two of more than 60 artists had said yes. Of all those who said no, when asked why not, their responses were I think very revealing. One, they didn't wanna take an opportunity away from someone who needed it more. [laughter] It's like touching and also ridiculous [laughter] like, who needs it more than people who live in the Arctic? I was interviewing artists that broke their dremel and then didn't carve for six months. They don't wanna take money away from people who really need it. Two, they believed that grants were like charity or handouts and they wanted to be self-sufficient.
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