Category(ies)
Date/Time
Date(s) - Wednesday, May 10, 2023
12:00 pm1:00 pm
Topic:
Incorporating Culture: How Indigenous People Are Reshaping the Northwest Coast Art Industry
Fragments of culture often become commodities when the tourism and heritage business showcases local artistic and cultural practice. Frequently, this industry is developed without the consent of those whose culture is being commercialized.
Solen Roth asks what does this say about appropriation, social responsibility, and intercultural relationships? And what happens when local communities become more involved in this cultural marketplace?
We’re excited to hear Solen speak to learnings from her eighteen months of ethnographic fieldwork examining how Northwest Coast Indigenous artists and entrepreneurs are cultivating more equitable relationships with the companies that reproduce their designs on everyday objects.
Solen Roth is a cultural anthropologist currently working at the service design cooperative Meilleur Monde. She also teaches at the Université de Montréal School of Design, where she is part of Tapiskwan, a participatory-action research project in collaboration with Atikamekw artists and knowledge holders. From 2010 to 2016, she co-chaired the Commodification of Cultural Heritage working group for the Intellectual Property Issues in Cultural Heritage research project at Simon Fraser University.
The series was initiated by the NLPS in response to its goal to fulfill the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada’s Call to Action #57. This Call to Action asks all levels of government to provide education to public servants on the history of Indigenous peoples.
Brought to you by The Nanaimo Ladysmith Public Schools (NLPS) and UBC Press, in collaboration with Vancouver Island Regional Library.
Contact Info
VIRL
(250) 559-4518
daajinggiids@virl.bc.ca
virl.bc.ca