Concordia Journal Home > Archives > September 11, 2008 issue >

Cultural exploration: David Pariser 

David Pariser, of art education, took this picture on the Eastmain river this summer while a guest of the Cree Native Arts and Crafts Association (CNACA) during their third annual general assembly.

He attended two workshops: One on the law of cultural property and the other on training younger artisans in traditional Cree skills and crafts. Both workshops raised key issues in terms of preservation of Cree art and knowledge. During the second workshop, participants developed a list of elders whom they would like to interview to record and preserve their cultural knowledge before it is forgotten. The CNACA was created in order to assume a leadership role on behalf of the Cree for the development of arts and crafts.

Pariser recently published an article on Freidl-Dicker Brandeis, was an inspirational art educator who died in Auschwitz. Even though she perished along with her pupils, she was able to save their drawings which were recovered after the war. The article, “ A Woman of Valor: Freidl-Dicker Brandeis, Art Teacher in Theresienstadt Concentration Camp,” appears in The Journal of Art Education.