Quote:
Originally Posted by Textcritic
But the artist and his family have been veery explicit for a long time that they would prefer the clearly inspired images of the Stanley Park Totem are not made without—at minimum—some consultation.
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If the family held the IP for the totem's design, there would be a pretty clear way for them to deal with misuse of the image. It seems they don't have the IP, I would guess either because their great grandfather died so long ago or because the rights were sold along with the original totem. The family have said that it being commercialized is something that was part of the original intent. The totem was originally rented and later sold as a commercial piece, but they no longer seem to have the basis to claim IP rights. So, does it matter that the family doesn't like it being reproduced?
It raises the question of what claim members of a broader community or ethnic group should have to the unique creations of individual artists from that community. Is there an insinuation in the claims of cultural appropriation that the existing system of IP laws don't work? It's not like a system doesn't exist to protect IP.
Actually, the more I learn about the totem, the more I think it's a perfect symbol to represent the city of Vancouver. The totem itself was originally rented out by the artist for use in a movie about headhunting savages, then it was sold and erected as a symbol of indigenous culture on a site where an indigenous village was forced to leave so that the settler community could have that land for recreational purposes. It's also not even a piece of art representative of the people who were forced off that land, so it's part of erasing and misrepresenting those people who were forced out. Now it's reproduced in a variety of overpriced completely commercial forms that are made in China and sold in gift shops all over the city as symbols of Vancouver's local indigenous culture, making money off of promoting a false image to the world of Canadian appreciation of indigenous heritage. I mean, really, it's like Dave Gunnarsson actually did base his design on quite a deep understanding of Vancouver history and culture. It's kind of amazing. Holtby should keep it.