Michele LeTourneau
Northern News Services

NNSL (Apr 05/99) - In Nunavut and the NWT combined, the arts and crafts sector contributes an estimated $30 million to the economy.

Northern art -- like most aboriginal art -- is popular worldwide. Born of traditional skill and practicality, it has spanned the space between useful object and object of beauty. A symbolic receptacle, aboriginal artwork contains within it the grace of timelessness, the spirituality of a people, and a dynamic striving for the future.

Both the NWT and Nunavut have one exciting thing in common...the arts are a serious cultural and economic resource. People are creating, drawing from traditional skills, and transforming these into highly-valued pieces of artwork that are sought out by the rest of the world's population.

Nunavut and the NWT, though separate now, have very similar tasks regarding the arts. The first item, it seems, that artists in the East and West are agreed upon is organization. It's an old concept -- power in numbers, in a united voice.

In the East, the Nunavut Arts and Crafts Association (NACA) formed in October, '98. Listed in the recommendations that came out of a meeting in Cape Dorset -- to discuss the future of Inuit stone carving in Nunavut -- is the establishment of Nunavut Arts and Crafts Association, and planning of the mandate and role in relation to other arts agencies.

This past March, in Yellowknife, a similar meeting was held by a group in its infancy, the NWT Arts Society. The group, which plans to hold a founding meeting in May, came out with a similar concept, recognizing that there are other arts groups, but it's time for solidarity.

"The idea of bringing people together on an ongoing basis is also to build and strengthen the existing organizations that are out there," says Joanne Barnaby, of the Dene Cultural Institute in Hay River. Barnaby was present at the first inaugural meeting, and is a spokesperson for the group.

"The existing local organizations and regional organizations and territorial organizations that are out there dedicated to the arts -- we want to foster collaboration between all of these groups, we want to strengthen the support to each other in each of our activities, and we want to be able to bring the various arts together."

Barnaby adds:

"You know, the performing arts together with the carvers, the basket makers -- and really get some links going there that help us to develop an appreciation for the full range of arts that we have access to."

Recognizing the role

It is an exciting time for both NACA and the about-to-be-formed arts society. They both have "new" governments to work with. Governments that, in this time of transition and change, have an opportunity to fully recognize the important economic and cultural role arts and crafts play in the North as a whole.

In an interview last month with News/North, the director for commercial economic development with the Nunavut government's sustainable development department, Ed McKenna, said,

"Arts and crafts have always been an important sector of the economy of the Northwest Territories.... As Nunavut moves ahead, the Nunavut Arts and Crafts Association will play an ever growing role."

McKenna added that with division, the role of arts and crafts in the East would become more clear.

This can be said for arts and crafts in the West as well, which in many ways has stood in the shadow of Inuit art for many years.

"With all the attention Nunavut is receiving, Inuit arts and crafts continue to be used as a symbol of Canada, and the symbolic quality will be enhanced by the creation of Nunavut," said McKenna.

Daunting tasks

This is where one difference between the East and West surfaces. The art of the East has an established history and market, stretching way back to the days when James Houston, long-time advocate for Inuit art, first made a splash with Inuit carvings. In many cases, Inuit art already has a well-developed marketing infrastructure. The task will be to continue and thrive.

For the West -- though some steps have been taken by such groups as the Dene Cultural Institute (their Business in Art conference held in Yellowknife last week, which brought in artists from across the West, is a case in point) and the NWT's Development Corporation, it's tantamount to a catch-up game. "Hopefully with the new division coming into place, more dollars will be focused, where dollars should be focused, in the new Western territory," say Sonny MacDonald, a carver from Fort Smith, also present at the first pre-founding meeting of the NWT Arts Society, and the second spokesperson for the group.

"Because it is a known fact, and I'm not afraid to say it, both governments, federal and territorial, poured a heck of a lot of money into the Eastern Arctic."

MacDonald qualifies his statement:

"It (arts and crafts in the West) has been developed, but they never gave us the push, or the opportunity, to get it where it should be. Now we're trying to fast track and catch up."

"There's been an appreciation, an economic appreciation and a cultural appreciation afforded to Inuit art that has never been afforded to art in the West," adds Barnaby.

The GNWT is taking a first step in the right direction.

"The present Education Culture and Employment has an undergoing review of their strategic plan, which is approximately four or five years old now," says Barnaby.

"They've reviewed progress since that plan and have been organizing forums, focus groups for the last couple of months to get commentary on whether the old plan worked, how well was it implemented, whether it meets current needs, whether there should be changes to future strategy."

The new arts society is a result of one such forum.

The question is, has the strategic plan worked?

"Yes and no," says MacDonald. "Some of the implementation has worked and some hasn't."

"And this is why -- the coming over to see the grassroots people, the artists themselves -- to get an implementation in there in such a manner that there is from the arts people, there is from the government people. To work together to get this going. Like I say, to me, it was a long time coming."

Endless possibilities

Now sandwiched between two territories which have proven that art and artists are a valuable and integral component to the Northern economy, the GNWT has some learning to do. And though the arts society is looking to the Yukon's Arts Policy and Action Plan, which is extremely progressive, the Nunavut Arts and Craft Association provides a good preliminary model for the art society.

NACA has recently released its first newsletter. A first annual general meeting is planned for sometime before August and a membership drive is set to be launched.

Back in November, Beth Beattie, co-ordinator of NACA, stated that she believed the possibilities for the association were endless.

The need is there and the desire. There's just not been a solid voice or advocate before, said Beattie.

Joanne Barnaby feels the same way.

Creating this opportunity through partnership with each other I think is really exciting, she says.

"And I think, in terms of government support, there's no arts legislation in place right now. There's no comprehensive arts policy in place right now. And we're recommending if the government is -- and the government should be -- serious about the development of art as a critical element of Northern society, a critical reflection of who we are, and our state of health, economically, socially, culturally, that they really need to demonstrate their seriousness and their support through the passing of legislation and through the development of policies that enhance the arts, and, therefore, the quality of life for Northern people."

And the arts society will be willing to help them with that.

"We (artists) should have been right there at the table from the first," adds Sonny MacDonald.

"Coming out of this group of people here -- we're going to form a new arts society in the new Western territory, with that specific purpose to be an advisory board to the government, to be a marketing agency for our own arts and crafts," MacDonald says, adding that numerous other things could be done within the scope of the society and its mandate.

"Let's get this show on the road," he says.

This is a statement with which artists all over the North might identify: makers of porcupine quill-work, birch bark baskets, or Babiche bags in the West, wall-hangings and tapestries in the East, carvers across the North, printmakers, from Holman to Pangnirtung... the list goes on and on.