Pauktuutit worries about theft of Inuit designs

MONTREAL — Pauktuutit, the national Inuit women’s association, is worried that a New York fashion consultant may be misappropriating Inuit clothing designs.

Bonnie Young, a high fashion scout from New York City, recently made the long trip to Holman Island to seek new design ideas. But word of Young’s Arctic shopping trip has upset Pauktuutit.

“I am deeply concerned about the cultural and financial appropriation of our collective and individual property by an organization with annual revenues in excess of $600 million a year,” Pauktuutit’s president Veronica Dewar said in a prepared statement.

Young, a “global fashion consultant” who works for the popular designer, Donna Karan, spent a day in Holman going from door to door and buying whatever items of traditional clothing she could find.

Dewar has written to Karan to ask her about what she intends to do with clothing that Young bought in Holman Island.

Pauktuutit has been trying to keep economic benefits from the production of Inuit clothing in the hands of Inuit women, and has mounted several Inuit fashion shows to showcase a variety of designs.

Pauktuutit has also lobbied for more protection of traditional Inuit clothing designs. At it stands now, nothing prevents southern designers from mimicking Inuit clothing.

“We want her to know we are aware and that we are watching her very carefully,” said Tracey O’Hearn, Pauktuutit’s executive director.

Now business in Europe, neither Donna Karan nor Bonnie Young were immediately available to respond to a request by Nunatsiaq News for an interview, said Patti Cohen of the company’s public relations department.

Young didn’t shop for new clothes in Holman, either, but sought out used articles. According to Margaret Kanayuk, who works for Holman’s co-op store, Young was particularly drawn to an intricate, “really fancy” caribou-skin parka worn by one man. But he wouldn’t sell it for the price that she was willing to pay.

“The women here are good sewers, really good sewers,” said Kanayuk . “So, she bought different clothing, some in stroud, some in material, some in caribou fur.”

This year, Young published a book called “Colors of the Vanishing Tribes,” with a foreword written by Karan, featuring colour photos of indigenous peoples’ traditional clothing.

Young also visited other communities in the Northwest Territories, including Dettah, Fort Providence, Fort Simpson and Yellowknife. In Yellowknife she reportedly bought jackets right off peoples’ backs.

Young told Glen Wadsworth, the manager of the Arctic Cooperatives’ Yellowknife outlet, Northern Images, that she was looking for inspiration for Donna Karan’s October, 2000 collection.

She told Wadsworth that she particularly wanted to buy old traditional outfits, and was very surprised to learn that most of these can be found only in museum collections.

“She didn’t seem to understand or comprehend it,” Wadsworth said.

Young also wanted to buy sealskin clothing, but didn’t realize that marine mammal fur can’t be exported to the United States.

Young was also disappointed to learn that many aboriginal peoples, don’t wear traditional clothing on a daily basis.

At Northern Images, Young bought a “substantial” amount of merchandise, including a beaded amauti from Pangnirtung, some kamiks, fur items, and articles knitted from muskox fur.

Wadsworth said he is a little nervous about Donna Karan’s intentions in sending Young to the North, but he feels that publicity for Northern native designs could be a good thing.

“The publicity isn’t going to be negative,” he said. “And if it’s done with respect and people are given credit, I think it’s acceptable.”

Wadsworth doesn’t feel that the market for Inuit-made traditional clothing will be hurt or easily appropriated, because it’s impossible to mass produce most of the designs.

And if, for instance, Donna Karan’s designers decide to integrate muskox fur into a line of clothing, Wadsworth said it could be possible to forge a profitable commerical link between this mega-business and local workers in the Arctic.