The Lakehead Public Schools are apologizing for claiming an artist working with their schools was Indigenous.
The school board says that in 2018, it claimed Steve Gerow was an up-and-coming Indigenous artist teaching students about Woodland Art.
Officials now admit that was a mistake, and say Gerow never purported to be Indigenous or to teach Woodland style.
They apologize for misrepresenting him, and for how this kind of misrepresentation hurts Indigenous students and the community.
Gerow is a co-owner of The Creative studio in Thunder Bay, and got flak on social media recently for posting a painting that appears to imitate the Woodland Art style. It’s titled We’re all in this together and resembles Indigenous artist Roy Thomas’ We’re all in the Same Boat.
Now he is also apologizing for the 2018 post and says he’s gotten guidance from an elder in the community about cultural appropriation.
