Today marks the opening day of the giant, yearly Canadian Aboriginal Festival in Toronto. It is North America’s largest aboriginal arts event and takes place at a suitably sized venue, the SkyDome.) Alongside other festival activities, which include lacrosse competitions, films, a fashion show, shopping, food, music and a powwow with nearly 1,000 aboriginal dancers and drum groups from across North America, some festival-goers will take the time to talk business — the business of culture. Our correspondent is a panellist at the Economic Development Conference running concurrently with the festival. This is an excerpt from his presentation on “The Business of Aboriginal Cultural Industries.”

I don’t mind saying that up until recently, I had no idea what a “culturalindustry” was. So, like any storyteller would, I asked some people who Ithought would be in the know to point me in the right direction.

The first to respond was Henry Overduin, Dean of Mass Communications atMcNeese State University in Louisiana. He said, “I would call the CBC a culturalindustry, along with the National Film Board and similar organizations. Ingeneral, I would say that a cultural industry is a manufacturer, orcreator, of cultural artifacts or consumer products.”

Cam MacDonald, a retired journalism professor from the University of Western Ontario (UWO) told me this: “A cultural industry is any business — such as a museum, art gallery, theatre, concert hall, recreational or community facility — that serves to bring cultural events to the community, support local artists or celebrate heritage. Basically, whatever is educational in nature without being part of the established school system can be regarded as a cultural industry.”

Our cultural industries attract big audiences. These audiences come to see a revival of our culture as expressed by the many diverse First Nations from across the land. There was a time when the mainstream public thought we were all alike, that we wereall the same, no matter what tribal affiliation we may have had. Our history books were not written by Aboriginal academics.

Today, we’re beginning to see our academics getting published. We’re starting to see ourhistory being told. We also see our musicians recording their work — Aboriginal CDs are being released at the rate of over 125 per year across Canada. Here in Toronto, tonight, we are going to be honouring twenty of these artists at the Canadian Aboriginal Music Awards. This is one cultural industry that is quickly blossoming.

My wife, Mary Lou, and I produce a radio newsmagazine called “Smoke Signals,” broadcast weekly at the UWO campus radio station in London, Ontario, that works towards “bridging the gap of understanding.” We began our radio program because we felt people did not know anything about First Nations issues, but, subsequent to Oka, wanted to know more. We have attempted to fill that void of understanding.

One of our teachers, Art Solomon, used to say, “It is our turn to tell our story, it is our turn to be heard. We have something to say, and it’s now the white man’s turn to listen.” More and more of our brothers and sisters are understanding the colonization processthat has oppressed us and speaking out critically against this oppression. Slowly they are telling our story and talking about our difficult history that we have survived. For the past thirty years, these academic knowledge carriers have been working in tandem with traditional knowledge carriers to bring about a cultural renaissance.

It’s very exciting to see our young people growing up knowing their identity. These young people don’t have to grow up with the same kind of internalized oppression that many of us grew up with, because we are healing and decolonizing and showing them a different way. As a consequence of this we are producing artistic expressions through our cultural industries to transform our next generation into proud, positive youth. We are finding culture-based solutions and community-driven initiatives to benefitthese youth.

At the same time we are helping to educate the general public. People want to know more about Aboriginal cultures because they have not been taught about our history. This Canadian Aboriginal Festival is an example of a cultural industry that is accomplishing public education. It is also successful in bringing cultural events to the Toronto community, supporting local and national artists and celebrating First Nations heritage.

With regards to the second part of Cam MacDonald’s definition of cultural industry — “whatever is educational in nature without being part of the established school system” — I’d like to speak to two examples with which I am familiar.

Today, we have a national television network called the Aboriginal Peoples’ Television Network. The job of the APTN is to work with Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal groups across the country to promote mutual understanding and the spirit of co-operation. The APTN is an important national institution for all Aboriginal people. One of the key things we have to do right now is talk amongst each other, share our storiesand share our experiences. I think APTN is the institution that’s best suited to do that. It reaches, potentially, to every one of our communities. TV is an educational tool that can help us, if we control the medium.

I’d just like to talk about radio for a moment because this is a medium withwhich I am most familiar. Presently, across Canada there are several radionetworks broadcasting their signal to urban and remote areas. First Nations radio is available in most reserve communities. An FM signal is attainable for every reserve community that wants to begin transmission. Amos Keye found this out and founded CKRZ, The Voice of The Grand, on the Six Nations reserve which began broadcasting as a pirate station in 1990.

“Smoke Signals,” our program, has been on the air for over eleven years. Recentlya new community radio station, The Eagle, 89.5 FM on the Onyata:akaSettlement has begun. What is unique about these community radio stationsis that they are located in market areas where advertising could be sold bythe businesses in the community. Typically reserve stations don’t put a lotof money into the programming, but they do put a lot of money back into thecommunity. Money from the radio bingos, for instance, goes back into thecommunity. And where there are businesses, they could be underwritingprogramming that could deliver news and information programs that would otherwise not be available.

We could also have our Aboriginal economy establish radio signals in urbancentres. A new radio network service is going to be launched right here inToronto called the Aboriginal Voices Radio Network any day now. They willbe on the air in Ottawa, in Toronto, in Calgary and in Vancouver. Thistranslates into a potential listenership of ten million people. Fifteen years from now we can develop our own economy through the media. The media makes money. This economy would help with the social infrastructure and the maintenance of our communities. Or we could put money back into arts development so that there are programs for music and dance starting at grade school levels. Just think of thepossibilities.

Our children can look to the Aboriginal media industry as a good way oflife, a creative way of life. I think that is a good thing.

Artists can now create music right from their own community. But they requirelinks with the broader word to market their products. By means of anAboriginal radio network, programs can be produced that can be heard across the land. It opens the door to any community member, whether they’re musically inclined, or technologically wise, or market savvy, they can nurture those skills within the culturalindustry that Aboriginal radio is becoming.

Aboriginal media is a crucial marketing tool. But more than that, Aboriginal-controlled media is an important way of re-producing Aboriginal culture.

And on that note I will leave you with one final definition of culturalindustry. It comes from my sister and my anthropologist Kathy Buddle.

“What a cultural industry means to you depends entirely on how youdefine culture — if culture for you is men in leotards leaping across thestage or paintings on a gallery wall, your definition of cultural industrywill be necessarily narrow. If, on the other hand, you see culture as theart of living — the way a person walks on the earth, how a peoplecollectively make sense of their pasts, how they bring meaning to theirpresent and what paths they choose into their futures, then ‘culturalindustry’ encompasses something much more vast. The most importantAboriginal cultural industries are institutions like the family andcommunity. The role of the Aboriginal media and arts organizations is topromote understanding of, and respect for these institutions within andbeyond Aboriginal community borders.”