Yellowhead Institute published the special report “A Culture of Exploitation: ‘Reconciliation’ and the Institutions of Canadian Art” in August 2020. The report addresses the contentious relationship between Canadian cultural institutions (art galleries, museums, funding agencies, collections, etc.) and Indigenous Peoples, which has been beset by tokenism and inequality. The report lays out standards of achievement for the relationship between Indigenous Peoples and cultural institutions in Canada and recommends repatriation of bodies of Indigenous ancestors, increased transparency, growth of Black and Indigenous cultural workers into senior positions and greater accessibility of cultural supports.
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Recommendation 6:
Recognize that competition is endemic within art industries and ensure that policies and structures are implemented that ensure management, senior curators, senior editors, and other high-level positions are held accountable for gatekeeping, racist and misogynist micro-aggressions, preferential treatment of white employees and men, and workplace bullying, gossip, and other toxic cultures of white supremacy and misogyny in the ways they work, and the cultures they thereby promote within their organizations.
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Recommendation 13:
Indigenous publications, organizations, galleries, and other cultural institutions should immediately recruit Indigenous editors and department heads, if these positions are still held by non-Indigenous peoples. This might mean investing in mentorship processes and understanding that Indigenous qualifications can look different than non-Indigenous qualifications. This may require re-considering the concept of “quality”, production schedules, and other tools for organizational structure and workplace culture.
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Recommendation 14:
Restitution should be embedded in fee structures. Indigenous artists should receive higher resale fees, especially communities that have been historically exploited by the market (such as Inuit). Regardless of industry standards, Black and Indigenous artists should receive fees for showing in private and commercial galleries.
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Recommendation 15:
There should be a drive for greater gender and racial equity in gallery exhibitions. For instance, a guiding principle might mandate that Black women artists booking a solo exhibition be paid the same rate as the highest paid white man artist. In fact, institutions should recognize that certain communities deserve to be paid more for their time and adopt an equity payscale. This can be considered another form of restitution for historic and ongoing marginalization of Indigenous and Black individuals and communities, which requires more labour to participate in the industry compared to non-Indigenous, white peers.
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Recommendation 16:
For the foreseeable future, the acquisitions budget of Canadian art institutions must be solely dedicated to the acquisition of Black and Indigenous art. This acquisition campaign must not be merely history art about Indigenous and Black peoples; even if this means collecting primarily contemporary artists.
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