"No plans to devolve DIA art collection"

SIX NATIONS - When the Indian Affairs Department devolves their art program that collection should go to a First Nations gallery, said Joanna Bedard, Woodland Cultural Centre Executive Director.

"A First Nations institution would be the most qualified to look after the program," she said. "Woodland Cultural Centre has been pursuing the possibility of obtaining the collection for a while under different ministers."

Presently the Woodland Cultural Centre has its own art collection including some art which is held for the province of Ontario.

"The art would remain the property of Canada but the Centre would manage the collection and promote it world-wide," Bedard said.

Bedard said the funding attached to the collection would go from Indian Affairs to the collection's new home just like the funding from other programs being devolved to First Nations.

If the collection went to a non­Native group there is a possibility that the accompanying art history wouldn't be as prominent or displayed in a way that could show off the artists, said Bedard.

"The exposure would be limited because the institution would have more than one mandate to follow," said Bedard who added that since Woodland Cultural Centre's only mandate is to promote and educate people on the cultural aspects of First Nations people the collection would get the attention it deserved.

Bedard said that if an organization got the collection and was allowed to sell or rent pieces to different people or corporations then there is a possibility that parts of the collection would not be easily accessible to the public.

"The most appropriate body to handle the collection would be a First Nations organization," she said.

On April 8, Bedard wrote to Six Nations Chief Steve Williams asking for council to address the matter with Ron Irwin, Minister of Indian Affairs by either writing a letter of passing a council resolution.

Bedard had written to Irwin on February 16 letting the minister know that the Woodland Cultural Centre has been vigorously opposed to the fact that non-aboriginal institutions have been considered for the collections' new home.

"We have been at the forefront of academic discussion in respect to Aboriginal art as fine art with its own history and critique as approved to ethnological material," Bedard wrote. "The Woodland Cultural Centre supports traditional, modern and post modern expressions of Aboriginal art."

In her letter Bedard noted that the Woodland Cultural Centre is aware of market requirements off-shore, promotional needs and the representational issues around artists and their agents.

To demonstrate the Woodland Cultural Centre's capabilities, Bedard invited Irwin to participate in the opening of the centre's annual art show on May 15.

The art collection is handled by Vivian Grey of the Department of Indian Affairs who said that Indian Affairs hasn't taken any stand on the issue at this time.

"There are no plans to devolve the collection at this point in time," she said.