Aboriginal artists popularity soars

Alberta

Guide to Indian Country Page 9

The good news for Native artists and craftsmen is that the interest in

purchasing indigenous art is at an all-time high.

What may tarnish that soaring star and drag it back to earth is the

proliferation of copycat items on the market that undercut prices by 40

per cent or more.

Associated Press reports this has happened in Seattle, Wash. There, a

wholesaler sold Phillippines-made reproductions--complete with phoney

signature--of model totem poles crafted by Makah carver, Stacy Raub.

Raub successfully sued, but the problem is bigger than just one artist,

U.S. Federal Trade Commission spokeswoman Eleanor Durham says.

I'm not so sure we've seen quite this volume of really pricey stuff"

counterfeited before, Durham said about a recent case.

To complicate matters further for the consumer, there is a long list of

associated problems cited by retailers. For example, there are

wholesalers who do not guarantee either the authenticity or the place of

origin of goods. Then there are some Native people who manufacture or

sell Native-made items alongside mass-produced items from foreign

countries in a setting, such as a powwow, that implies the goods sold

are made by Indians.

Only in the areas of Inuit sculpture and original paintings by

established Native artist does there seem to be some protection afforded

the consumer. That protection lies in the reputation of the museum or

art gallery. Other than that, there is just the Copy-right Act,

retailers say.

"Today, most Inuit art is marketed through collectives, which

authenticate the work and affix an "igloo" tag prior to sale. Reputable

galleries and shops generally will say they only purchase items so

tagged. In the case of paintings done by Indians, they buy from people

they know, or whose work they can validate.

But even at the retail level, differences of opinion exist about what

constitutes a rip-off, of the extent of the problem of rip-offs.

Agnes Bugera, owner of the Bearclaw Gallery in Edmonton, says that in

her experience, Native carvings or paintings "have not been a problem."

"We buy very little from mass-produced things," Bugera adds, "so we

never come across (counterfeit carvings)."

At the Fort Door in Edmonton, proprietor of "Canadian Native and Inuit

Products" Tom Sawchuk says he does think foreign reproductions are a

problem, and his first concern is to buy Canadian . "I don't want to do

Third World stuff or things that are copied by other countries--I simply

don't handle it."

Sawchuk scoffs at the suggestion put forth by some retailers that there

is a dearth of genuine Indian art for sale, therefore, they have to

offer mass-produced items.

But his explanation is ambiguous "I don't think so. There's an

over-abundance of things to buy and an over-abundance of things to buy

and an over-abundance to artists..but a person is fussy and I'm fussy

and that's what I'm finding. Nice things are hard to find."

As long as it is Canadian-made, Sawchuk will consider purchasing

Native-style art from anyone, including non-Natives, he said.

"It doesn't matter what you are or who you are, if you're an Ojibway or

a Haida, but if you can carve Haida-style... I have a Cree guy from

Calgary that brings me masks sometimes that are Haida-style. What's

wrong with that if he has put his heart and soul into it?"

Tom McFall at the Alberta Craft Council agrees with Bugera on the value

of the igloo tag to prove an item is Inuit-made.

The high ticket items are what concern McFall.

He says that if someone from Europe is spending say $500 for a doll,

"they want to know... that it is Native-made".

McFall says that because a lot of Native people are no longer learning

how to do traditional crafts, outlets "don't have access to the real

thing." That explains why they sell the mass-produced items, he said.

Barry Ace, acting manager of the government's Indian Art Centre in

Hull, Que., cites the Internet as a new source of concern for artists.

Often, no approval i obtained for the images that go on it, so the

artist may be deprived of royalties.