Creating, Knowing and Sharing: The Arts and Cultures of First Nations, Inuit and Métis Peoples (CKS)

The Canada Council for the Arts Strategic Plan 2016-21 states;

Nation to Nation Relationship

Within colonial structures we must take the position that we are all agents of either stasis or change. For every act of political, social or cultural agency that challenges the status quo, there will always be competing forces of colonial entrenchment/privilege, oppositional paranoia or, simply, inertia. In the case of a Canadian federal bureaucracy such as the Canada Council for the Arts, change can be daunting. It requires not only vision and will, but an ability to share authority and work collaboratively internally and externally in a spirit of respect, reciprocity and trust. To this end, Canada Council for the Arts has embarked on a way forward in building a new relationship with Indigenous Peoples of this land.

The clearest manifestation of this commitment is the creation of Creating, Knowing and Sharing: The Arts and Cultures of First Nations, Inuit and Métis Peoples (CKS), an innovative program of Council’s New Funding Model.

The Canada Council, through this program, affirms the following guiding principle; ²Steven Loft, “Creating, Knowing and Sharing: The Arts and Cultures of First Nations, Inuit and Métis Peoples.” 2016.

• respect Indigenous worldviews, and the rights of Indigenous Peoples, as articulated in the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (2007);
• support and uphold the principles of reconciliation, articulated through the report of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada (2015);
• support artistic activities that respect and encourage First Nations, Inuit and Métis cultural self-determination and the vitality of Indigenous artistic practices and communities;
• recognize the distinct and unique place of First Nations, Inuit and Métis artists in Canada as creators, interpreters, translators and transmitters of an inherent Indigenous cultural continuity, as well as unique contributions made to Canadian cultural identity;
• recognize and support customary and contemporary artistic practices by First Nations, Inuit and Métis artists;
•  support and encourage a Canadian arts landscape that is deeply ingrained with perspectives, voices, stories, struggles and aesthetics of the First Nations, Inuit and Métis Peoples of Canada;
• Recognize the distinctiveness of the many unique and self-defining First Nations, Inuit and Métis communities in Canada;
• and, recognize a wide variety of artistic and cultural practitioners within First Nations, Inuit and Métis communities.

In this way, we actualize the Council’s commitment to Article 31 of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, which states:

“Indigenous Peoples have the right to maintain, control, protect and develop their cultural heritage, traditional knowledge and traditional cultural expressions, as well as the manifestations of their sciences, technologies and cultures, including human and genetic resources, seeds, medicines, knowledge of the properties of fauna and flora, oral traditions, literatures, designs, sports and traditional games and visual and performing arts. They also have the right to maintain, control, protect and develop their intellectual property over such cultural heritage, traditional knowledge, and traditional cultural expressions.”

As the program moves forward it will be vital to continually assess and monitor it based on analytics and measures consistent with these values. By doing so we establish a commitment to upholding customary law and protocol, rights of the holders of Indigenous knowledge and the authority and agency of Indigenous Peoples in maintaining, developing and protecting their culture and heritage.

Respecting Indigenous Cultural Rights

In a recent article, Canada Council CEO Simon Brault wrote:

By placing this emphasis on cultural self-determination, CKS goes beyond parochial notions of “designated funding” and into the sphere of true transformative social engagement. In developing CKS, it was incredibly important to actualize it within discourses of self-determination and cultural sovereignty. By articulating the program within a rights discourse, we ensure Council’s responsiveness to changing societal, legislative and jurisprudential dynamics as well as changes in Indigenous creative and cultural practice now and into the future.

By actualizing CKS through a politics of Indigenous self-determination, we recognize Indigenous artists as working within spheres of Indigenous cultural action often articulated into nuanced critiques, characterized by poignant social commentary marked by strength, attachment to cultural connectivities and a pervasive sense of agency. Tuscarora scholar Jolene Rickard notes that the, “work of Indigenous artists needs to be understood through the clarifying lens of sovereignty and self-determination, not just in terms of assimilation, colonization and identity politics…. Sovereignty is the border that shifts Indigenous experience from victimized stance to a strategic one.”⁴Jolene Rickard, “Sovereignty: A Line in the Sand,” Aperture, no. 139 (Spring 1995): 51.

Decolonization

Decolonization is a process of unbinding imperialist concepts of knowledge from Indigenous ones. Decolonization as process takes place at all levels of Indigenous interaction: between ourselves as Indigenous Peoples, and between ourselves and non-Indigenous communities and institutions.

Indigenous knowledge is based on assumptions, the foundations of which are encoded in living memory. Our Elders, our Teachings, our Songs, our Dances, our Stories, and yes, our ART make manifest an epistemology based on Indigenous forms of knowledge transferal, what Gerald Vizenor termed a “storied presence … a visual reminiscence.” 8 It is the foundational story, the essence of continuance and the site of resistance and agency, that propels Indigenous culture. It is a resonant and profound stance.

Conciliation/Reconciliation

Conciliation/reconciliation⁶Use of these two terms is subjective, and sometimes contested. For our purposes I will use them together to be inclusive of differing viewpoints between the Indigenous Peoples of this land and non-Indigenous Canadians is a defining issue for this nation. By fostering critical and creative conversations between internal departments, external partners and artists, scholars, survivors and communities, the Canada Council has committed itself to being a proactive agent of change in the ongoing dialogue of conciliation and reconciliation in this country.

Even before the Final report and Calls to Action of the Truth and Reconciliation Council (TRC) were released, the Council had already embarked on a rethinking of its relationship to Indigenous artists. As part of this exercise, we had begun to explore ways to implement initiatives and strategies for a broader and sustained commitment to conciliation and reconciliation, ingraining them in our overall structure, as well as committing specific resources to dedicated program initiatives. We began by asking ourselves this question; how might artists, scholars, residential school survivors, and members of the Indigenous and general public continue the work of reckoning that must shadow the ongoing impacts of colonization in Canada?

From these discussions came the {RE}CONCILIATION initiative, a partnership between the Canada Council for the Arts, The J W McConnell Family Foundation and The Circle for Philanthropy and Aboriginal Peoples. Over a two-year period this initiative has funded twenty-seven multi-disciplinary, collaborative projects across the country with the aim of engaging artists, survivors, Aboriginal communities and members of the general public in this vital and ongoing dialogue.

Going forward in Canada Council’s address of TRC Call to Action 83⁷“We call upon the Canada Council for the Arts to establish, as a funding priority, a strategy for Indigenous and non-Indigenous artists to undertake collaborative projects and produce works that contribute to the reconciliation process.” as cited in Call to Action 83 of the TRC Final Report, 2016., Council must continue to not only support innovative artwork and organizational initiatives that include dissemination and scholarship about the impacts of cultural genocide but also continue, as an organization, to learn about and be responsive to the challenges and the possibilities of creating new dialogues, initiatives and infrastructures that have as a core principle reconciliation, and conciliation. Moving forward we must remain cognizant of the vital work of conciliation and reconciliation in a range of creation, expression and public engagement strategies to “ensure the path to reconciliation remains a national conversation of relevance to us all.”⁸Canada Council Strategic Plan 2016-2021.

Conclusion

This is a time of transformation and change for Canada Council and for a country in the process of re-examining its foundational make-up. We have a government that has affirmed the rights of Indigenous Peoples of this land and moved to address the complex and longstanding barriers to a true “nation to nation” relationship.

In this current political climate, the initiatives of the Canada Council are significant, vital and are important markers of the deeper societal change that we know is possible. Where all of this will go, I don’t think any of us can predict. But, art and culture can, and must play a role in this evolving narrative. In our communities, in this country, and around the world, Indigenous Peoples will continue to assert their social, political, cultural and inherent rights. And all along the way, accompanying them in their resurgence, and into their future will be the artists.

The Canada Council for the Arts, as the national public arts funder, and the Creating, Knowing and Sharing: The Arts and Culture of the First Nations, Inuit and Métis Peoples Program in particular, can and will continue to innovate within that narrative.