How much does Inuit art contribute to the Canadian economy?

Artist and weaver Kawtysie Kakee working on a tapestry at the Uqqurmiut Centre for Arts and Crafts in Pangnirtung, Nunavut. A new report looks at just how artists like Kakee benefit the Canadian economy. (Eye on the Arctic)
 When it comes to economic development in the Canadian Arctic, resource development dominates the headlines.

But a recent report lays out in detail, just how much the Inuit arts economy contributes to the North, and to Canada as a whole.

In 2015 alone, the Inuit art economy contributed $87.2 million to Canada’s GDP, according to Impact of the Inuit Arts Economy, commissioned by the federal government and released this month.

“In the less than 70 years since the commercialization of Inuit art began, the production of Inuit arts and crafts has spread across Inuit Nunangat and outside Inuit Nunangat and has found an enthusiastic market across Canada and around the world,” it said.

(Inuit Nunangat is a term that refers to Canada’s four Inuit regions: the Inuvialuit Settlement Region in Canada’s western Arctic, the eastern Arctic territory of Nunavut, Nunavik, in northern Quebec, and Nunatsiavut, in the Atlantic Canadian province of Newfoundland and Labrador.)

Art production is an important income generator in Canada’s four Inuit regions. (Courtesy Government of Canada)

When most people think of Inuit art, they think of carvings or the print collections produced out of communities across what was then Canada’s Northwest Territories. (The region was divided in 1999 between the Northwest Territories in the western Arctic, and Nunavut in the eastern Arctic.)

But the report’s findings include Inuit art from all mediums including performing arts (where economic impact in terms of GDP was $13.4 million in 2015) and film, media, writing and publishing (which generated approximately $10 million in terms of GDP in 2015).

Arts and crafts important personal income generator
The gift shop at Ulukhaktok Arts Centre in Ulukhaktok, Northwest Territories. The creation of arts and crafts, whether for commercial or community use, play an important role in the North according to a new study. (Eilís Quinn/Eye on the Arctic)

Job possibilities and educational opportunities are limited in most of Canada’s Inuit communities because of their small populations and remote, fly-in locations.

Visual arts, particularly carvings and crafts, have long been a way to generate personal income and to work flexible hours, something important to the lifestyle of subsistence hunters.

Arts and crafts are responsible for 2,700 full time jobs, the report said, with the majority of those positions found in Canada’s four Inuit regions.

But an estimated 13,650 Inuit artists are involved in arts and crafts production in Canada, the report said.

Of those, 4,230 artists produced their work as a way to generate income while the remaining 9,420 artists produced works for personal use or for use in their communities.

“This level of participation, including the artistic contributions of 9,420 individuals whose artistic objectives do not include earning money, is indicative of the continued importance of art in Inuit culture today,” the report said.

Will earning power of Inuit women increase?
A portrait of the late Helen Kalvak in the lobby of Helen Kalvak Elihakvik School in Ulukhaktok, Northwest Territories. Kalvak, a graphic artist and Member of the Order of Canada, is one of the most internationally recognized names in Inuit art. However, Inuit women producing arts and crafts often make less money than men. (Eilís Quinn/Eye on the Arctic)

Many of Canada’s big name Arctic artists are Inuit women: Kenojuak Ashevak from Cape Dorset, Nunavut; Helen Kalvak from Ulukhaktok , Northwest Territories, and Jessie Oonark, from the Baker Lake area of Nunavut.

But when it comes to arts and crafts production, men still make more than women, the report found.

“Men tend to produce carvings and jewellery, art forms that dominate the traditional retail and wholesale markets, whereas women tend to produce more sewn goods and textiles,” the report says.

“Although sewn goods and textiles have taken on a larger role in the wholesale and retail market, they constitute a much smaller proportion of the overall retail and wholesale trade, as they are less profitable than carvings and jewellery.”

However, the increase in online sales could help level the playing field, the report  says.

“Retail and particularly wholesale trade are in retreat, while direct-to-consumer sales are increasingly important. Sewn goods and textiles dominate the direct-to-consumer trade, particularly in fast-growing, online direct-to-consumer sales, and so Inuit women can expect to see their relative earning power increase.”

The report was prepared by Big River Analytics for Indigenous and Northern Affairs Canada (INAC).

A summary of the report can be found on INAC’s website.

Video Section

To view Eye on the Arctic’s in-studio interviews with Inuit artists from across Canada, visit our special video section:

The art and artists of Canada’s Arctic

Artist Jolly Atagooyuk working in studio in Pangnirtung, a community in Canada’s eastern Arctic territory of Nunavut. (Eye on the Arctic)

Write to Eilís Quinn at eilis.quinn(at)cbc.ca 

Related stories from around the North:

Canada:  Inuit Art Foundation takes over art certification from Canadian government, Eye on the Arctic

Finland:  London gallery offers multimedia Sámi art, Yle News

Greenland: Canadian artist explores Greenland’s past, Eye on the Arctic

Russia: Karelian art on show in Russia, Yle News

Sweden:  Swedish Sámi visual artist shaping climate changes, Radio Sweden

United States:  ‘I Am Inuit’ goes from Instagram to museum in Anchorage, Alaska, Alaska Public Radio Network

 

Eilís Quinn, Eye on the Arctic

Eilís Quinn is an award-winning journalist and manages Radio Canada International’s Eye on the Arctic news cooperation project. Eilís has reported from the Arctic regions of all eight circumpolar countries and has produced numerous documentary and multimedia series about climate change and the issues facing Indigenous peoples in the North.

Her investigative report "Death in the Arctic: A community grieves, a father fights for change," about the murder of Robert Adams, a 19-year-old Inuk man from Arctic Quebec, received the silver medal for “Best Investigative Article or Series” at the 2019 Canadian Online Publishing Awards. The project also received an honourable mention for excellence in reporting on trauma at the 2019 Dart Awards in New York City.

Her report “The Arctic Railway: Building a future or destroying a culture?” on the impact a multi-billion euro infrastructure project would have on Indigenous communities in Arctic Europe was a finalist at the 2019 Canadian Association of Journalists award in the online investigative category.

Her multimedia project on the health challenges in the Canadian Arctic, "Bridging the Divide," was a finalist at the 2012 Webby Awards.

Her work on climate change in the Arctic has also been featured on the TV science program Découverte, as well as Le Téléjournal, the French-Language CBC’s flagship news cast.

Eilís has worked for media organizations in Canada and the United States and as a TV host for the Discovery/BBC Worldwide series "Best in China."

One thought on “How much does Inuit art contribute to the Canadian economy?

  • Wednesday, July 26, 2017 at 15:11
    Permalink

    So, were we your projects?
    From reading this, it started out like that but it showed our resiliency instead, and that should be seen and learned from instead. Anyone in the whole wide world can do art, but the situation of us Inuit of how we became a town is somewhat became a concern and this is the consequence of a person who thought we (INUIT) knew nothing… rather that person knew nothing of us and used Federal Government to try and turn us into himself… HELLOOOOOO, do we have trees, do we have farms, HELLLOOOO, did we invite you?
    Bring in all that money to get better and safer housing and health benefits and build hospitals so we don’t need to be shipped out all the time. Finish your job in our communities, give back the land you stole and making us pay living on it, you never show your face, all you do is steal our land. |I have to pay 1 grand for each effen year for the land you stole from me. Rebuild and renovate your roads, get the dust off and move the airstrip away from the center of the town so that we may not put jet oil and fuel into our body anymore.
    Get rid of Housing Corporation out of Nunavut, they do nothing except to steal Federal money that was meant for our housing units, why can’t anyone see that? Take a look at the store owners, they not only rip us off, they rip off all levels of Government and nothing is being done, where is the money, who has it? These artist are paid a penny to work their ass off, when they work, they have to pay housing more than their income, did you ever know that or not, if not, this is how disconnect you are from Inuit and the Arctic and their Artists. They are not even paid by hours, they are paid by how much is done in a day, like the slaves were paid or still are, these Artists are the evidence of your slavery. So when you boast, show how our housing, Food Security, Health, and all the poor job Federal Governemnt by giving way too small funds for Nunavut Governemnt to run a good community like they promised, after all this their doing, are doing about it.

    Reply
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