Canadian cultural policy and Indigenous arts

Abstract

This chapter offers an historical overview of the federal Canadian cultural policy regarding Indigenous arts up until the recent changes brought to the policies in the context of “reconciliation”. Relations between the policies and Indigenous arts are troubled, as one can expect in a settler society. The commercial exploitation of Indigenous arts and their downgrading to mere “curiosity” was a powerful process located at the heart of Canadian colonialism. The inclusion of Indigenous arts and artists and Indigenous peoples’ participation to arts and culture only became a priority for the state’s cultural agencies in the 1990s. This chapter pays particular attention to the recent restructuring of funding at the Canada Council for the Arts in 2016, as it happened in the specific context of the publication of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s Calls for Actions. After a necessary contextualization of what Indigenous arts and artists might mean, this chapter first introduces an historical overview of the relationship between Indigenous artists/arts organizations and the Canadian state. Second, this chapter examines the Canada Council’s policy formulation in this field of Indigenous arts. And lastly, it analyses the 2016 Canada Council’s programme reshuffle and discusses some of its critiques.