{"id":56486,"date":"2018-05-28T02:54:54","date_gmt":"2018-05-28T02:54:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.mixedracestudies.org\/?p=56486"},"modified":"2018-05-28T02:54:54","modified_gmt":"2018-05-28T02:54:54","slug":"a-metis-night-at-the-opera-louis-riel-cultural-ownership-and-making-canada-metis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/?p=56486","title":{"rendered":"A M\u00e9tis Night at the Opera: Louis Riel, Cultural Ownership, and Making Canada M\u00e9tis"},"content":{"rendered":"

A M\u00e9tis Night at the Opera: Louis Riel, Cultural Ownership, and Making Canada M\u00e9tis<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

Adam Gaudry, Ph.D.<\/a>
\n2017-05-18<\/p>\n

Adam Gaudry<\/strong><\/a>, Assistant Professor
\nFaculty of Native Studies & Department of Political Science
\nUniversity of Alberta<\/em><\/p>\n

\"Riel<\/a><\/p>\n

Taking my seat at the Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts<\/a>, home of the Canadian Opera Company<\/a> (COC) to watch the debut of Louis Riel<\/em>, I snap a photo with my camera. (above). Immediately and out of nowhere an usher appears to inform me that I can\u2019t take photos inside the hall, because the set design is copyrighted. I\u2019m surprised by this, as the image used is clearly derived from a public domain photo of Riel<\/a>, something that M\u00e9tis<\/a> rightfully regard as part of our historical legacy.<\/p>\n

In truth though, I\u2019m more annoyed that five minutes before this a number of Nisga\u2019a<\/a>\u2014represented by the Git Hayetsk<\/a> and Kwhlii Gibaygum<\/a> Dancers\u2014had presented to opera-goers on the theft of one of their songs by the opera\u2019s composer, a lament song from the House of Sgat\u2019iin. After contacting the COC, they had worked to educate the audience and the COC on how the composer took one of their sacred songs, without permission or prior knowledge, using Cree words in place of theirs and renamed the Kuyas Aria (read their critique in the opera\u2019s program here<\/a>).<\/p>\n

The irony, of course, was that while the opera appropriated Indigenous songs and stories, my photo for Instagram was somehow violating the intellectual property of one of the many non-Native people who had decided to remix Indigenous culture, history, and imagery for non-Indigenous consumption. It reinforced the tightly held colonial notion that everything that once belong to us now belongs to \u201ceveryone,\u201d and that in the name of art all is open to appropriation\u2014and eventual ownership\u2014by Canadians…<\/p>\n

Read the entire article here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

My theatrical faux pas is a microcosm of the larger issue with this production\u2014indeed any creative work focused on Riel or one of his contemporaries\u2014the seeming disregard of cultural ownership and societal integrity of Indigenous peoples.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,19,459,8,3015],"tags":[27686,28703,7454],"class_list":["post-56486","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articles","category-canada","category-history","category-media-archive","category-native-americans","tag-adam-gaudry","tag-canadian-opera-company","tag-louis-riel"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56486","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=56486"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56486\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":56489,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56486\/revisions\/56489"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=56486"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=56486"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=56486"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}