When I was growing up, the closest thing to a positive public image of Aboriginal people I can recall seeing was the TV test pattern. Almost every other Aboriginal image was in a negative context (TV, movies. comic books, stories, school). The test pattern was almost benign.
It appeared to be a neutral image, but in its own way, it also had a negative impact because it reinforced us as a disappearing (or disappeared) race. It reflected who we used to be, not who we were at the time of my youth. It was the image of an Indian man wearing a war bonnet, something that almost no-one did any more.
It was against the law for Indians to “wear Indian garb” for so long in Canada, that nobody wore traditional things anywhere at that time. Even at powows, which slowly were coming back from the world of legal prohibition, dance outfits rarely, if ever, included war bonnets.
As I grew, I came to realize that the impact of this lack of imagery was to reinforce the idea that we no longer existed as a people…that we were invisible and irrelevant. I came to wish that our society had evolved in a way that included us in its images. The fact that it did not, made all of us feel apart from each other.
The Montreal Gazette this morning has a story about a fashion boutique where a Canadian Fashion Designer has developed and is selling a fashion line called Inukt and is accused of “cultural appropriation”. I think that is the wrong term to be throwing around. I personally don’t see anything inherently wrong with society using images from our culture appropriately, it’s when those images are used inappropriately that I have a problem. It’s cultural misappropriation we should be fighting and that’s the term we should be using.
Whether what’s going on in Montreal is an inappropriate use of our culture, I will leave for others to decide, but I hope the fashion industry does use images that include us and that they do so respectfully. I want our clothing to become popular items to wear. I want our images and images of us to be shown in a positive way. I want the Chicago Blackhawks to keep using the image they have on their hockey jerseys.
I want Canada and all its institutions to be proud to include us in the imagery of this country, not solely because there’s a profit to be had, but because its who we are and who this country is. If we demand that they stop using those images, we lose something. All of us. We will continue to be invisible.
Mizana Gheezhik (Sen. Murray Sinclair) 
‘I want Canada and all its institutions to be proud to include us in the imagery of this country….’
Amen! One of the first things I was aware of as a small child in Victoria, B.C., was Indigenous presence, via the great sculptures of Thunderbird Park. I wondered why all the placenames were colonially-related: but what did the original people here call places? I am glad that Indigenous standing is being recovered: may it go on quickly & soundly. Thank you, Sen. Sinclair.
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Indigenous/Aboriginal -Metis/First Nation/Inuit ARTISTS should be the ones to determine the direction of the continued development of authentic Indigenous culture as they draw from their cultures and experience. Let the Indigenous artists and knowledge holders decide what is appropriate or not vs. giving non-Indigenous people the power to depict, define, seemingly represent and modify Indigenous Arts of these lands. Enact their own “self-determination” beyond the current mass produced and widely propagated stereotypes and misappropriations. Much has already been taken and subverted/distorted for its origins and authentic present position… why would we encourage that to continue. Why also would we continue to watch our authentic Indigenous artists continue to struggle to succeed while others profit greatly at their expense all in the name of consumerism and capitalism.
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