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Liz: Hi, my name is Liz Barron and I'm the project manager for the CARFAC Indigenous Protocols initiative. CARFAC has engaged in a research and consultation project to create an Indigenous Intellectual and Cultural Property resource guide and toolkit for the visual arts sector, very similar to the one that was produced in Australia.

CARFAC aims to provide respectful Protocols around the use and protection of First Nations, Inuit and Métis visual art and culture material. This includes information about who has the rights to reproduce, present and reference traditional and contemporary images, stories and symbols. The toolkit will be shared on the Indigenous Protocols dot Art website and there'll be a series of podcast interviews, case studies and other materials as well to help those engage around the idea of Protocols.

Today, we are speaking with the Inuit Art Foundation. The Inuit Art Foundation is your home for Inuit art as the only national organization dedicated to supporting Inuit artists working in all media and geographic areas.

The Inuit Art Foundation has sought to empower and support Indigenous artist self-expression and self-determination while increasing the public's access to an awareness of the artist's work for more than 31 years. The Inuit Art Foundation manages the iconic Igloo Tag Trademark, which has been protecting Inuit artists from fraud and cultural appropriation since 1978.

Today I have with me, the executive director, Alysa Procida, and the manager of the Inuit tag trademark initiative, Blandina Makkik. Alysa is a passionate and dedicated arts advocate and has worked closely with Inuit artists for the past 10 years. In 2015, she joined the Inuit Art Foundation as the executive director and publisher of the award winning Inuit Art Quarterly, bringing a wealth of experience with Inuit art and non-profit leadership. Prior to her role with IAF, Alysa was the executive director and curator of the Museum of Inuit Art in Toronto, Ontario, and under her leadership, the IAF successfully launched several signature programs, including the Igloo Tag Trademark, which protects artists from cultural appropriation and theft.

Also we have with us, Blandina. Blandina Makkik is the Igloo Tag coordinator for the Inuit Art Foundation. She was formerly the senior producer for the Inuit Broadcasting Corporation where she developed the award-winning show Takuginai, the first Inuktitut-language children's program. She has worked with the Inuit and ative Gallery as the director at the Craft Ontario shop for over a decade and has served as the land claims implementation advisor for the Government of Nunavut, as well as the advisor for the Department of Foreign Affairs and nternational Trade. Welcome both of you.

Blandina: Thank you, Liz.

Alysa: Thanks so much.

Liz: I'm very excited to find out more about the program, the Igloo Tag program, as well, CARFAC, we're looking at the idea of Protocols and how the images are being used by non-Indigenous peoples on clothing and products and being reproduced in art pieces where, you know, artists may or may not have the permission to share those images or use their stories. And so can we start with you, Alysa, with the overall objectives of the foundation and the magazine?

Alysa: Sure. So the Inuit Art Foundation is the only organization, as you said, that works with Inuit artists across Canada and increasingly internationally to support their creation, work and connection to opportunities, regardless of what artistic media they work in. And so we were founded in 1987 and since then have been publishing the Inuit Art Quarterly, as well as running awards and scholarships and working to protect artist work, more recently, since 2017 through the Igloo Tag program.

The Inuit Art Quarterly is the only magazine that exists in the world that's dedicated to circumpolar Indigenous art and works to connect artists with audiences and opportunities and provide a platform for their voices. So what we do is quite broad and wide ranging, but ultimately our role is to work on behalf of Inuit artists to help their self-determination in their careers and make sure that they have as many opportunities as possible to create and explore their artistic practices.

Liz: So you had said the circumpolar Indigenous art, so we, our Advisory Circle, we had a conversation about the word Indigenous and that typically the Inuit, would not use the word Indigenous. So does the circle polar Indigenous arts then include like the Sami the further, the Dene as well?

Alysa: So I think Blandina could probably comment more about terminology preferences for Inuit communities, but yes we do include Sami artists in the magazine from time to time and really focus on the connections north to north rather than exclusively north to south.

Liz: Oh, interesting. And I see that you won the magazine's first national award?

Alysa: Ah that was Blandina for a story that we published of hers last year. Although it feels like much longer than that now about her former work in Igloolik with film production. So that was the first time we've won a national magazine award. And that was for her piece that won the gold medal in best short feature. But we've also been shortlisted as the best arts and literary magazine several times.

Liz: Congratulations.

Alysa: Yeah. Thank you.

Blandina: Oh, thank you.

Liz: And so Blandina, can you talk a bit about the Igloo Tag program?

Blandina: Absolutely. Very quickly a brief history when Inuit art started to be brought south out of the Arctic into other markets out the Arctic in the late fifties, it was very well received by the Canadian public and eagerly sought after, and it was a great success. But with success comes imitation the pure form of flattery.

However, it the art started to be reproduced outside the country in places like China, where mostly sculptures, although this included prints to, where the the government at the time was the holder of the trademark where found that they were being mass produced pieces, which were obviously very fake and being sold as authentic Inuit pieces. And some print works as well with Inuit sounding names or what the imitators thought were Inuit sounding names.

So the government was very quick to pounce on this and hence the role, the true role of the Igloo Tag program came into being where all pieces sold out of the Arctic at this, at that time were tagged with the Igloo Tag, showing the authenticity of the piece.

Liz: And so you had said that the government held the trademark?

Blandina: Yes, initially. As I mentioned when large amounts of Inuit art started going into the southern market, the Igloo Tag was initially licensed to wholesalers that were dealing and purchasing Inuit art at that time. I can list them for you.

Alysa: If I could just jump in, I do think that this is an interesting part of the trademark's history that doesn't often get talked about. That because they're were these large distribution networks, it actually was the wholesalers themselves who had asked the government for the trademark protection. And I believe that started with the Hudson's Bay company when they were still distributing Inuit art, as well as the Guild of Crafts in Montreal, who maintained the number one Igloo Tag license, because they were licensed first, to cut, to help differentiate work made by Inuit from cast molded fakes that were coming in from overseas. And so it was the government who created the trademark in 1958 and who managed it up until we took it over in 2017.

Liz: So the artists themselves don't hold the trademark to their work?

Alysa: They own the, they maintain their intellectual property rights. That's correct. Right. But historically, no individual artists are not licensed.

Liz: Wow.

Blandina: And so to explain further the trademark, the Igloo Tag, the Igloo Tag Trademark is registered within the Canadian Intellectual property office, right. They hold, all trademarks within Canada. And we have, and we have three versions, an English, French, and a bilingual sign. So in fact, we are the holders of three versions of the Igloo Tag Trademark. And as holder of this trademark, we can license wholesalers, galleries, art collectives, museums, that purchase involve usually. And at the moment we do not license individual artists.

Alysa: And so I think it's important to point out here as well, that most of the major distribution systems that have been licensed the Igloo Tag are the Inuit cooperative networks, which are made up of and governed by Inuit in communities throughout Inuit Nunangat. And so there is community control and checks and balances over the program exerted in that way.

As well, when we took the trademark over in 2017, we undertook a several year long consultation tour of Inuit communities, of which Blandina was an important part, because no one had actually asked Inuit artists what they wanted from the program prior to 2017. It was very market driven. Although I will say very forward looking in terms of respecting the artists intellectual property and providing additional protections to them. And during those consultations, we did ask the question to communities, do you, would you want individual artists to be licensed?

And at the time there was some hesitation about that because, as Blandina I'm sure will explain further, because she is so, such a, a fierce advocate of maintaining the, the rights of, of the artist's work. There was concerns about the proper control of the tag, the physical tag and trademark, because part of the strength of the Igloo Tag is that it has been very tightly controlled and enforced. And so without that enforcement it becomes harder to make sure that there's value to the artists.

We know from the 2017 impact of the Inuit arts economy study that was conducted by the federal government, that the Igloo Tag Trademark adds approximately 3.2 million dollars a year to the Inuit arts economy in additional value, that collectors are willing to pay for works that are tagged as opposed to those who are not. And so since, or which are not.

So since we've taken it over, our interest has been in maintaining those, the integrity of those controls and the integrity of the tag while expanding out the benefits to additional artists, by working with other organizations in different regions like Nunatsiavut, whose artists were largely excluded from the program in the past. And in doing it in a way that is sensitive and respects community input and needs while maintaining the integrity of the tag for the artists who are benefiting from it currently.

Liz: So Blandina, can you tell me about how the engagement process worked when you were going to the communities?

Blandina: Well we did visit all parts of the Arctic from the west to the mid Eastern Arctic, Eastern Arctic and Labrador. And I would say largely the people in Nunavut and Nunavik were the most familiar with the tag, because it has been in use for over 60 years. And there is great interest in perhaps a, an art collective in the west to have a license, as well as perhaps the new Inuit art center in Nunatsiavut.

And as the tag is a, a physical tag, but we all also looked into aspects of expanding it so that it might be a clothing tag. It might be a, you know, there were a number of suggestions given that perhaps it could be a hologram, perhaps it could be a mark on juries, such as you have on silver. So we are still expanding and looking to the future as to how we can expand beyond the actual physical tag itself.

Because under our current registration, we cover works of common metal, jewelry, which might be in bone or baleen, silver, fine arts and crafts, art print, drawing, paintings, collages. So it's very extensive, obviously sculptures and carvings, ceramics and textile, textile art. And those are the goods that we have to list under the Canadian intellectual property office.

But we can also cover services such as consignment sales, retail and wholesale sales. And currently we do have a registration of entertainment services, such as live theatrical performances, dance, life, music, performances, film and video production distribution. And also importantly, in these days, providing information in the field of Inuit art via website. So it's a very expansive, and we do, we are protected under the trademarks act. So we do have the possibility to enforce misuse or imitation works under the trademarks act, cuz all our legal [Inuktitut] fall under this.

Liz: Mm-Hmm. So when our project we're looking at rotocols and the idea of how artists can share stories or don't share stories and the permission around being able to share specific bead patterns, design patterns, images.

So here's an example as an artist, I wouldn't, I wouldn't be able to use killer whale in my work. For one I'm Metis, I'm not from the West Coast and I wouldn't have had permission and nobody would've been able to share the story with me and I didn't engage with anybody to be able to use that image.

However, I have an exhibition, I'm in a gallery and I'm using these images as my own. So this is where we're trying to look at how Protocols could be in place as a West Coast artist. I would, you know, go to my community. I would ask about use, permission, who can use it when it can be used all along that process in being able to produce a final piece, whatever that piece may be. And so you, we had emailed Blandina about Protocols. And so there's not a Protocol system within the Inuit community for images or designs or stories.

Blandina: I'll try to make it simple. So for example, if you are the co-op up in a community, the Canadian Arctic producers is the distributor of Inuit art for the cooperative system across Nunavik and across Nunavut.

So we have licensed them to be able to use the Igloo Tag, to affix it to Inuit art. And they are within the community. They know the artists individually, most of our communities are quite small. And so it's easy to authenticate whether the artist is Inuk or is not Inuk or if it's an imitation or not. So that's obviously the case is different outside of the Arctic and the Northern regions. However, because we are the owner of the registered Igloo trademark we have the ability to enforce whether a person is selling, distributing or advertising any good or services that are not authentically Inuk, Inuit.

Or if they manufacture cause to be manufactured, possesses or attempts to export any of these under a confusing trademark, i.e. an imitation trademark, we have the legal right to pursue, legally, these infringement. And we are very well protected. So there are a number of clauses under this act that we can punish offenders. Although we don't physically own the goods themselves that are tagged, we have the ability, if these pieces are not authentic, to pursue vigorously, the offenders and we have within our rights to pursue them monetarily through fines and amazingly, even through imprisonment. So it's very vigorous.

Liz: And how, how is that determined? If an artist is not, is committing fraud with, with using the tag system?

Blandina: Well, so far up to this point, it's been fairly easy. We occupy a vast territory, but the Inuit art world itself is we all know the operators, the galleries, the museums, et cetera. And we have very active collectors artists who are quick to point out if any of offenses are being committed. And we have acted on occasion where there has been fraudulent use or attempts at imitating a non-Inuk by non-Inuit works of art. So at the moment there is a degree of self policing, but Alysa, do you want to add to this? [Laughing]

Alysa: Sure, yeah, I'm happy to fill in. So I think the major issues that the trademark faces in terms of enforcement are twofold, which are slightly different in their nature. So one is people wanting access to the trademark for their own works, that haven't been able to have it before. And generally people are quite understanding when we say you need to be licensed and so become licensed.

The other is if a, if a trademark tag is affixed to a work of art that was not made by an Inuk artist. And so as Blandina is saying, we have a lot of eagle eyed friends across the country and internationally who are on the lookout for improperly tagged pieces. And generally speaking in those instances, once we point that out whoever is responsible for that piece of art immediately removes the tag because I don't think anyone wants to be in the position of misrepresenting someone's identity, certainly in a legal context but also in, in any way.

And so that has been really helpful. As Blandina said, we have had to take legal action in certain circumstances to really force the issue because that's our responsibility. But generally speaking everyone who is involved with the creation and in distribution of Inuit art. So the artists themselves, galleries, distributors and collectors are really invested in maintaining the integrity of the trademark because they want to be able to trust it.

And so if there's ever a question about misuse, people know how to get in touch with us or information on website, they do all the time. And as Blandina said, it's a small community. So we know most people. And generally speaking people are very quick to make things right. If things have been done often out of an error or ignorance, in rare instances yeah, we have had to escalate, but generally speaking people are very understanding of the importance of the system and the importance of maintaining the individual intellectual property rights of the artists.

The tag obviously does not create moral rights for artists but certainly is an extra of enforcement. And because most Inuit visual artists are so geographically far from where the art is sold in the south, that tag, giving an extra layer of protection on their intellectual property rights is really critical also in maintaining the provenance of the work and connecting that artist back to the work that they've created.

So it is, and because it's been around for over 60 years also, it's kind of an important, an ingrained piece of the Inuit visual arts ecosystem. And we've been working really hard to expand it and make it more equitable, as Blandina said, to expand it to other kinds of art forms and to do it in a way that is sensitive to community need and not inadvertently making additional problems by maybe moving too quickly or in the direction that people don't actually want.

Blandina: And another tool that we are currently, continue to work on, I guess, Alysa also is the profiles on our in Inuit Art Foundation website.

Liz: I was gonna ask about how you're creating the database and cuz it seems to be an new initiative.

Alysa: So again, this actually grew out of something that the federal government started cuz I think it's important also to just take a step back before I talk about the biographies. And remember that the creation and distribution of what many people know of as Inuit art now. So sculptures, prints and drawings was really encouraged by the federal government in the 1940s and fifties as a way to move Inuit onto a wage economy as colonization was increasing throughout the north.

Many people including actually our board president, Dr. Heather Igloliorte have written about how that was also acted as a site of cultural resiliency for Inuit. But it really was, it's a complicated thing. And so the federal government, because they were so invested, really put a lot of financial and other resources into marketing Inuit art that included creating the Igloo Tag to protect the market. And it also included creating biographies of artists out of what was then the Inuit art center in the Indigenous affairs department.

And so what would happen is that people who worked at the Inuit art center would go to communities or talk to artists and create biographies and then make, maintain those CVs, whenever a gallery would have an exhibition, they would contact the department and they would add the credit to the bio. However, those biographies generally were not signed off on by artists because of infrastructure issues. And they were freely accessible to anyone who asked the department and without an artist's explicit consent for that information, that is highly problematic as I'm sure you can imagine.

And so in the 1990s, that program shut down because of privacy concerns on behalf of artists that they voiced and actually the IAF was actually involved in working with artists to do that. Since that program stopped though for the many years between the 1940s and the 1990s, the many decades, Inuit artists had not been encouraged explicitly or, or you know, not explicitly to not maintain their own CVs because someone else was doing it for them.

And so there are many artists who still lacked biographies, which are critical to an artist's success. You can't apply for grants without a biography and CV, collectors won't purchase your work. Museums have no idea about the scope of your practice to put you in exhibitions. And it's hard to export your work internationally over borders without proving that you are an artist through a CV.

So in 2017, when we took over the Igloo trademark, we also launched a program that is now known as the IAQ profiles. And so they are biographies about artists that are accessible on our website, which I should mention is accessible in high bandwidth and low bandwidth versions because internet connectivity in the north is not what we would all want it to be. Mm-Hmm . And so we work with artists to create their biographies and help them maintain those CVs with their explicit written consent that they can revoke at any time, which has many purposes.

One is to create that resource that they can use if they want to, for example, apply for a grant or send it to a curator. They can also use it to sell their work. Collectors can use it to understand more about the work that they own in their collections. And people who are looking to purchase can look at an Igloo Tag, see the artist's name and find that person on our biographies to make sure that that person, number one is an Inuit artist. And number two, learn more about their practice.

It's not comprehensive, it's growing all the time. There's always, thankfully more artists and more exhibitions and more publications. So it will never be a finished platform. But we do think that that additional layer of protection is really important in making sure that artists know where their work is, have some level of control over their public presentation, and also connecting with audiences, which is really critical.

Liz: Do many of your artists in that database, do they apply for grants?

Alysa: I think that increasingly that's happening. We are working with our partners across levels of government to make sure that granting systems are easier to navigate for Inuit artists. This has been a longstanding source of work, that I know many of our colleagues who are funders are working towards. However, it is easier now to do it because these biographies are maintained in a central place. And so I do know that some artists have used their profiles to help apply for funding.

Liz: That's really good.

Alysa: Mm-Hmm

Liz: Well, I wanna thank you both so much. I've learned a lot about the tag program and artists, and actually where to find the artists as well. I think that's really important.

Alysa: Yeah. Thank you so much for the opportunity.

Blandina: Oh, qujannamiik [Inuktitut]. Thank you so much.