Why tackling the global industry of fake Indigenous art is like playing 'whack-a-mole'
CBC
You've probably seen Andy Everson's work – without even knowing it.
The K'ómoks and Kwakwa̱ka̱'wakw artist is the creative mind behind a popular Every Child Matters logo that's on orange T-shirts across the country.
"The Every Child Matters [image] is near and dear to my heart … having ancestors and relatives that went to residential schools. So I made this image available for people to use … and also for the Orange Shirt Society to be able to produce official shirts," Everson told Unreserved host Rosanna Deerchild.
Everson had one stipulation for those using the image: that proceeds from selling items with it go back to Indigenous non-profit organizations.
But after the revelations of suspected unmarked burials at the site of a former residential school in British Columbia, demand for orange shirts and Every Child Matters paraphernalia skyrocketed.
"People started to put [the image] on everything and selling it all over the place," Everson said. Many of these sales — some of them by online businesses located overseas — were not going back to Indigenous organizations, he noted.
His experience with the Every Child Matters image is just one example of the way non-Indigenous people and businesses profit from Indigenous artists' work.
Everson said he didn't have the time or resources to pursue legal action. So there wasn't much he could do to stop businesses from profiting from his work and the outpouring of support for Orange Shirt Day and the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation.
A global industry of fake Indigenous art has made it harder for Indigenous artists to make ends meet doing their work. To Indigenous artists, it's also cultural theft.
The industry ranges from designs copied onto apparel and home decor to carved masks and totem poles, reproduced in Asia and Eastern Europe and sold cheaply. The industry of fake Indigenous art also includes massive fraudulent art rings.
While the problem of copycat Indigenous art has been going on for many years, Indigenous and non-Indigenous people are pushing for legislative changes to protect artists' work, and to ensure profits go back to the artists and their communities.
Sen. Patricia Bovey, the first art historian to sit in the Canadian Senate, estimates that the industry of fraudulent art costs Indigenous artists millions of dollars.
"Art fraud is big. It comes right after issues of the illicit drug trade and firearms," Bovey said.
It's important that Indigenous artists are compensated for their work, she said, adding that art collectors and consumers should get what they pay for.
P.E.I.'s Public Schools Branch is looking for 50 substitute bus drivers, and it'll be recruiting at three job fairs on Saturday, June 8. The job fairs are located at the Atlantic Superstore in Montague, Royalty Crossing in Charlottetown, and the bus parking lot of Three Oaks Senior High in Summerside. All three run from 9 a.m. until noon. Dave Gillis, the director of transportation and risk management for the Public Schools Branch, said the number of substitute drivers they're hiring isn't unusual. "We are always looking for more. Our drivers tend to have an older demographic," he said.