Heritage Canada sponsors aboriginal artists’ gathering

Federal Heritage Minister Sheila Copps will shine the spotlight on Canada’s many aboriginal artists and cultural workers at an elaborate three-day event in Ottawa this month.

Called the “National Gathering on Aboriginal Artistic Expression,” the event will feature workshops, discussions, shows and performances.

Copps will chair the event, most of which will take place at the Canadian Museum of Civilization from June 17 to 19.

Norman Moir, an assistant deputy minister in the Heritage department, said the purpose of the gathering is to talk about the many topics related to issues faced by aboriginal artists.

Jonah Kelly, a retired CBC broadcaster from Iqaluit, is the only Inuk sitting on an 11-person aboriginal advisory committee set up to advise the Heritage department during the conference.

Other committee members include Phil Fontaine, a former grand chief of the Assembly of First Nations, Linda Sorensen, a former advisor to NWT Premier Stephen Kakfwi and Roberta A. Jamieson, the chief councillor of the Six Nations of the Grand River Territory in south-western Ontario.

Jamieson said she hopes the event will showcase the achievements of Canada’s aboriginal artists and help the Heritage department understand some of the barriers and challenges that aboriginal artists face.

“Our cultures are just as vibrant as all other peoples in the world,” Jamieson said at a press conference this week.

She said the gathering will not only focus on traditional art forms but also on aboriginal artistic expression in new media.

“We have many artistic expressions that are traditional and we have many, as our cultures have evolved, that are contemporary. We are filmmakers, we are into video, we have people who come from the field of dance, writing, television, radio, visual arts,” Jamieson said.

Iqaluit rock singer Lucie Idlout is scheduled to make some remarks at the opening of the plenary session on June 18, and Igloolik Isuma’s celebrated film, Atanarjuat, will be shown that evening.

This month’s event is the first of three aboriginal conferences meant to mark the conclusion of the International Decade of the World’s Indigenous People.

A conference on aboriginal tourism will be held next year, and a conference on aboriginal traditional knowledge in 2004.