Singing Eagle

From:
http://winnipeg.cbc.ca/regional/serv...eniers20050214

Native art more lucrative when 'made in China'
Last Updated Feb 14 2005 08:20 AM CST
CBC News
WINNIPEG – A Manitoba-based company says souvenirs such as cardboard tipis and plastic Indian maidens could be the road to riches for Canada's most impoverished aboriginal communities.

First Nations Trading Development Corporation is touring the country, hoping to convince artists to provide designs that will be used for mass-produced trinkets made in China.

Company head Leonard Linklater says native souvenirs are a multi-million-dollar industry, but aboriginal communities are not taking advantage of it.

He uses a mug at a hotel gift shop as an example: "It has a picture of a chief on it and it says, 'Around this camp, there's only one chief' and when I turn the cup around, it's made in China," he says.

"Everyone is prospering except the First Nations themselves."

Linklater says the problem is aboriginal artists focus on selling original artwork, and it's an uphill battle. He believes he can get more money in the hands of the artists by buying designs and having them reproduced in China.

"Right now, they're running around trying to sell one for $250 or whatever they can get for it, because you need the money today to feed their children," he says. "If the buyer buys 5,000 even at $5 a piece, as an example, then the individual can make $25,000 with just the one product and, you know, $25,000 is above the poverty line," he says.

Linklater says support from band leadership is critical, so his company is pitching the idea to them at workshops across the country.

Jerry Primrose, chief of the Nisichawayasihk Cree Nation at Nelson House, is already onside. "We've always been confined to a small, boxed area, and this is more or less like getting out of the box, you know, and looking at what's out in the whole world," he says.

Linklater has found an Asian trade house to work with. Later this month, he plans to take band leaders to China, to tour tradeshows and manufacturing plants, and see the prospects first-hand.

Joe G

SE
That's freakin typical!!! WTF....???? 'authentic' eh? Art and 'mass produced' should NEVER be in the same sentence!!! what the hell will be next???? "Velvet Elvis w/ Indian maiden' paintings???
OBTW...guess what's playin on radio in background...."Train kept a rollin' by Aerosmith....turn it up!!!! (oohhhh the lead guitar in that song!!!!)

mountaindew

Everything is made in China these days because of their cheap, slave labor. I don't think I would do anything like that. We're already getting ripped off by non-Indians using so-called Indian designs on their cheap little trinkets. Maybe I shouldn't say cheap because some non-Indians do make a huge profit copying designs and using them to make regalia. Some are so good that you'd think their work was done by an Indian. They even antique their work to make it look like it was made in the 1800's so the unsuspecting consumer will buy it. I'd really give it some thought before venturing into something like that. The original artist would probably get the smallest percentage of the profit while the company selling the idea/product would get the larger percent.

AngelFeather

hmmm... Made in china eh??? well thats just great!!(sarcasm)

next thing we will be blamed for the cheap way in which the pieces are made... hence why i think Native art has never been put on the Mass produced Market, we dont want to be seen as cheap rather want to be seen as taking pride in our work and art like our people have done since time imemorial... If it takes 10 years to make so be it, at least we can say we did it with our hearts and that only ONE of those pieces exist. I think thats also why there is SUCH a thirst for Native crafts, because the majority of it is Genuine with no duplicates. People look for that in items... One of a kind items that no one else has and Native people can supply that. And really... this is the benefit of our people to have our art mass produced??? LMAO Yeah right... along with benefitting who elses pocket book which inevitabely will come out ahead just as they have with everything else they have borrowed, stolen or replicated from the Native people. Take it China and who gets the credit?? it sure as hell wont be the Natives. The art will lose its authenticity anyway so I dont see the point.

Singing Eagle

I know eh!

I so love that song - Aerosmith closes each concert with that song! And as for Joe Perry - he's my favorite guitarist and nice eye-candy too!

Singing Eagle

Great points everyone - I don't know why these people would think that NDN designs made in china is better then made by actual NDNs!

This is an excellent opportunity to train people to run home-based businesses! It's a chance to help people who want to learn these crafts to learn them - and for those who know them to pass on their knowledge! People in the communities for the most part want to work - they just need a job!

I visited Akwesasne several years ago and there are numerous shops that have the mass produced crap alongside stuff made by people from that community and others - I was impressed by the quality of the local art and disgusted by the mass produced knockoff junk.

IMO, Mass produced stuff is dead - it hasn't any of the artists' spirit, intent, and desire in it.

I don't want to buy anything that looks tacky and takes away from supporting our own people to make a living.

Blackbear

Why not instead they build a factory or two in Canada itself to provide more jobs for aboriginals that mass produces a line of artwork designed by natives there? T-shirts, mugs, things designed by native artisans that can be mass produced and distributed in CAnada and the USA. I'm not talking out best native original stuff either. An artist could be paid a price for his original art to be reproduced on a t-shirt that could be distributed all over and then actually fetch a higher price for the original piece of artwork after it's exposure.

we would actually make more off our artwork if we shipped it overseas to places like Germany and Norway to sell. If someone wanted to make a bundle of money selling original stuff, they should buy it firsthand from native artisans and then fly overseas and distribute it to shops there.

__________________
Don't worry that it's not good enough for anyone else to hear... just sing, sing a song.