Dene leaders in the Northwest Territories, as well as those who appreciate northern art, are calling for help in protecting northern artists from cheap knockoffs of their work.

Meeting last week in Inuvik, N.W.T., Dene leaders passed a motion calling for patents to protect traditional aboriginal designs in an effort to stop foreign companies from copying them.

From factory-made inukshuks to mass-produced baskets and beadwork, knockoffs of northern art are being sold to tourists in Canada for a fraction of the price of original works.

Northern art collector Margaret Nazon of Inuvik said she thought a new print she had received from a friend last summer came from a Yellowknife artist.

Then she flipped the print over: "It said it was made in Taiwan. So I was very annoyed," Nazon said of the print, a colourful painting of a raven.

Knockoffs of northern art are becoming common, said Winnie Cadieux, owner of a craft store in Enterprise, N.W.T., that specializes in authentic northern art.

Cadieux said the most common knockoffs are of inukshuks, but she has also noticed baskets and birch-bark items from China that look like the real thing.

'Obligation' to support local artists

"You really have to know birch bark to know that it's not real," Cadieux said.

Cadieux said she wants the N.W.T. government to point tourists seeking northern arts and crafts to shops that sell only authentic art.

But beyond that, she said not much can be done to stop countries like Taiwan and China from producing knockoff art.

"As retailers in the North, we have an obligation to try and support our local artists and our local producers," she said.

"But it's like anything, you know, it's a free market out there and if you've got a lot of customers and you need to move a lot of product, then you're going to be buying it cheap from mass producers."

Cadieux said she's fine with some mass-produced art, as long as it's clearly labelled as mass-produced.