An Anishinaabe poet's response to Canadian apologies and more arts stories you might have missed

Here at CBC Arts, you won't just find our original content — we also bring you the best art posts from across the entire CBC network.

These are the week's can't-miss stories:

'I Know You're Sorry:' one Anishinaabe MC and poet's response to all of Canada's apologies (CBC Canada 2017)

How far can apologies really go when they're not backed up with meaningful change? That's the question at the heart of this powerful poem from Leonard Sumner, an Anishinaabe artist who brought his words to CBC Canada 2017 last week. CBC 2017 describes his work as "straddling a line between fortitude and fragility," and this piece certainly delivers with hard-hitting stanzas like, "But the focus of this genocide / At root remains intact / So instead of killing Indian kids / Why don't we kill this Indian Act?" Take a few minutes to consider the weight of his words.

'I'm so grateful to represent my people': Blood Tribe actor from Alberta stars in Wonder Woman (CBC Indigenous)

Audiences around the world may be falling in love with Wonder Woman right now thanks to her titular new movie — but for the people of southern Alberta, another character is the real superhero. Eugene Brave Rock, who plays "Chief" in Wonder Woman and is a part of the province's Blood Tribe, says he was given an "unprecedented" level of control over the role, which included him introducing himself to Wonder Woman in his native Blackfoot language. "It's wonderful," Brave Rock told CBC Indigenous. "I'm so grateful to represent my people, my culture and my language to the rest of the world."

'You're always erased': Electronic musician tired of excuses for lack of women at festivals (CBC Manitoba)

Ah, summer festival season...the long days of music, the sweltering heat, the underrepresentation of female acts onstage. It's everyone's favourite time of year! Winnipeg electronic artist Joanne Pollock is fighting back against claims that gender parity in festival booking is impossible — an excuse used most recently by the director of the Manitoba Electronic Music Exhibition of Technology, Innovation & Creativity, who told Metro Winnipeg that the festival "couldn't just book 50 per cent women out of the gate because they don't exist. They're not there." Pollock isn't buying it: "If you say they don't exist, instead of 'I'm lazy and I don't want to do the work,' or, 'It's my festival and I don't want to do that," you're actually kind of erasing us." Anyway, on a totally unrelated note, here  are  some  female  Canadian  artists  to  get  to  know.

Number of Indigenous art 'knock-offs' for sale in Yellowknife shocks Dene designer (CBC North)

Dene designer Tishna Marlowe caught Canada's eye back in April when her fashions were seen on the Junos red carpet, but now a different kind of design is catching her eye, and it's not pretty. Marlowe says the N.W.T. is "rampant" with non-Indigenous designers ripping off traditional Indigenous fashions and undercutting authentic designers by selling their appropriated works for a lower price. The problem is both an economic one and a moral one, she says: "It's hundreds of years of Indigenous knowledge of patterns being passed down. What right do they have to take those patterns that they weren't even gifted and then replicate them and produce them in mass quantities?"

12 Canadian books to read during Pride Month (CBC Books)

Take a look, it's in a book, Reading Rainbow! Our friends at CBC Books rang in Pride Month with a fantastic list of recommended reads from queer Canadian writers — including past CBC Arts contributors Catherine Hernandez, Gwen Benaway and Chase Joynt. And hey, if you end up being too busy with Pride festivities to finish all the books this month, they're all authors you should be reading the rest of the year, too. Happy Pride!

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