Themes Overview

The materials published on this website address a wide range of issues and considerations. While they have been grouped under five broad themes, we acknowledge that many of the experiences shared may touch upon more than one of these topics as well as issues beyond these five thematic groupings.

The five themes are as follows:

1. The Parameters and Stakes of Misappropriation and Misuse
2. Navigating Appropriation, Collaboration, and Intellectual Property in the Art World
3. Sovereignty and Self-Determination Over Our Arts, Cultural Expressions, and Artistic Practices
4. Experiments in Indigenous-Led and Government-Supported Protections and Protocols
5. Creating a Critical Mass in Indigenous Arts Leadership.

Importantly, the materials contained in this website reflect contributors’ personal experiences and reflections, often drawing from lifetimes of expertise working in their particular areas of artistic and cultural practice. It is this individual and personal connection to cultural and artistic practices and to experiences of misappropriation and misuse that is of particular value. Given that many Indigenous art forms are deeply connected to different forms of cultural knowledge, spirituality, medicine, legal orders, and family and community history, it is impossible (and undesirable) to separate personal lived experience from our work of examining misuse and misappropriation.

It is also important to note that the stories and experiences our authors share constitute multiple perspectives in an ongoing dialogue on promoting and protecting Indigenous arts, cultural expressions, and artistic practices. With the broad cultural diversity across Nations and communities, it would be impossible for a collection of writings of this kind to be definitive in its scope, or comprehensive in its analysis of misuse and misappropriation. It is hoped that the experiences shared here might lead to continued discussion that in turn prompts the development of new approaches and tools. As these conversations continue, it will be important to hear other examples and experiences of misuse and misappropriation, develop tools and approaches for promoting self-determination in the arts, and consider new protocols for addressing historical and ongoing harms.

The current era of reconciliation following the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, in which arts organizations, funding bodies, and educational institutions have sought to support and prioritize Indigenous art and knowledge, has resulted in a drive toward Indigenous inclusion. While numerous opportunities and recognition for Indigenous artists have arisen from this, it has also spawned instances where non-Indigenous artists and organizations have sought to “include” Indigenous stories, art, design, and other cultural expressions without permission and consultation. This has often resulted from a misrecognition of what constitutes misuse. Typically, from a Western perspective, only directly copied artworks, rather than the use of a form, “style” or “technique,” is understood as misappropriation. For many Indigenous people, particular forms are governed by hereditary rights, or have a complex relationship with community stewardship.

In other cases, the accessibility of Indigenous cultural expressions— stories, songs, knowledge—circulated by anthropologists and ethnographers in print and collected in museums and institutions of higher learning, has led to a misunderstanding that the rights to the use of this work have been extinguished. This is far from the case, as the hereditary rights of Indigenous Peoples to our cultural expressions persist, while understandings of community stewardship and governance of cultural practice remain strong. While these systems of Indigenous law (sometimes called “Indigenous legal orders” or “customary law”) may not be well understood by the non-Indigenous public, they provide the foundations for Indigenous people in determining cultural rights as well as processes for reparation when these rights are violated. This collection of articles addresses a broad range of examples that include multiple art forms and cultural expressions from across Indigenous communities and involve different actors and stakeholders from individuals to organizations and government funding bodies. Our goal of sharing and gathering these stories is to provide examples of tools and solutions that have been or could be developed to address the challenges raised by the contributors and others.