Canadians Cheering The Passage Of TORCH...

...Olympic Committee cheers souvenier sales.

Adrian MacNair: Vancouver's authentic made-in-China cheap aboriginal knock-offs

Posted: December 21, 2009, 2:15 PM by NP Editor

I suppose I’m just not surprised any more when I read about how starry-eyed dreamers who partnered up with VANOC are now having their world come crashing down to a cynical reality. Native artists in Canada were buoyed by the news that the Olympics wanted to use homegrown artwork in the Olympic Games, hoping it would promote their tiny industry. But now they say that while large corporate sponsors are making money, they’re barely going to break even as their artwork has been “stolen” and shipped to China for mass-production.

A First Nations B.C. arts seller is accusing Olympic organizers of stealing the authentic aboriginal product brand and corporatizing it. Shain Jackson, owner of Spirit Works Ltd. contends that if you google “authentic aboriginal products”, you’ll wind up on the VANOC site selling T-shirts. It’s true, you will.

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