Copies, counterfeits and resales: Inuit artists discuss fair compensation for their work

Inuit artists are gathered in Ottawa this week to share ideas about how to ensure they are properly compensated for the work they create.

“People are selling copies of Inuit art, and that’s where we’re navigating rough ice,” said John Houston, director for the virtual Houston North Gallery.

Manilaaksiuniq, or Navigating Rough Ice, is the theme for this year’s Isaruit Inuit Arts creators conference, hosted at the Rideau Community Hub in Ottawa’s Vanier neighbourhood Wednesday through Saturday.

Around 25 attendees joined Wednesday’s conversation centred on the impact of market changes, devaluation of artwork, lack of copyright protections and the loss of recognition in prestigious spaces.

Multidisciplinary artist Ruben Komangapik shared his experience of selling his first carving as a child to a co-op for $5, and how he had to explain what the carving represented.

“I just made a carving to buy sweets for me and the sister,” he said.

Later in his career, he saw how different buyers valued his work, with national galleries willing to pay the asking price while co-ops and collectors often paid half.

“It’s very hurtful to artists that they were given a small amount of money while the organizations that have sold it are paid three times the price,” Komangapik said.

Houston shared a copy of the Inuit Artist Index arranged by disc number with attendees.

Published in March 1992 by the former federal department of Indian and northern affairs, the document listed 3,700 artists with identity disc numbers, names, communities, birth and death dates, and artistic activities.

“Nowadays this system is not being used, and we have to come up with a new numbering system for the identification of large and small sculptures and carvings,” Houston said.

“It’s very important to have a system in place where the artists are recognized.”

A new system like this could help ensure artists and their descendants benefit from increasing valuations for particular pieces, Houston said.

One attendee recounted, for example, working with Arviat carvers in 1973. At the time, carvings brought south could fetch as much as 33 per cent more than what the artists were paid in the North.

“If you made 10 dollars from [a piece] 50 years ago and now it comes to $10,000 in its worth, it has jumped in price,” Houston said.

The issue of copyright protection was also raised, with Houston pointing to international reproductions of Inuit carvings. He cited instances of polar bear sculptures being copied in Germany and travelling exhibitions that encouraged unauthorized replication of Inuit work.

Some at the conference also addressed the need for more Inuit representation, such as on postage stamps. Houston referenced Inuit artist Kenojuak Ashevak’s 1970 piece, The Enchanted Owl, which became the first work by a female Inuit artist featured on a Canadian stamp.

“If we can do the same exercise with other artwork, it would be great for Inuit recognition,” he said.

Photographer Katherine Takpannie, who attended the event, photographed portraits of all the Isaruit artists present to add to their online biographies.

She later shared her experience of discovering her work displayed in a museum in The Hague, Netherlands, without her knowledge. She used the story to underscore the need for better collaboration between Inuit and other arts groups.

The conference continues Friday with Inuk sculptor Manasie Akpaliapik discussing the economic influences on sculpted art pieces.

The conference was presented predominantly in Inuktitut, with simultaneous English interpretation.