Forgotten First Nations art found in basement of Yukon Friendship Centre

Staff at the Skookum Jim Friendship Centre were shocked to find 183 art pieces in their basement recently, many of them created by well-known artists.

"This recent discovery during this year of significant hardship has been a very welcome surprise," said Bill Griffis, the centre's executive director, in a news release.

The art was originally donated to the non-profit organization in Whitehorse back in 1997, but forgotten over the years as staff left.

Among the pieces found, 28 belonged to the well-known contemporary artist Carl Beam. The other 155 were created by Stephen Snake and other Indigenous artists.

Griffis said the next step is to determine the value of each piece.

"Each one [of Beam's art pieces] has an appraisal certificate with them," said Griffis. "Part of the process is to figure out what the value is now because we have a collection [and] there may be some historical value to it."

Out of the other 155, about a third of them also had appraisals from the late 90s.

As one of Canada's most ground-breaking Indigenous artists, the art from Beam is of particular interest.

He was from M'Chigeeng First Nation, located on Manitoulin Island, Ont. He was born in 1943 and passed away in 2005.

Beam had a significant impact on the Canadian art sector. His work, which ranged from Plexiglass to canvas and other media, provoked conversations about the Indigenous experience of injustice in Canada.

Beam's cousin, Joe Migwans, is a long-time Yukon resident and cultural mentor.

"He was my cousin by blood, but he's more like my uncle because in our way, when we have a cousin like that, that age, he's more like my uncle. I always listen to what he said to me because he's my elder," explained Migwans.

He said Beam's work has a powerful message and is even more relevant today.

"He's basically preserving those kind of snippets in this time and telling, and it kind of like how he perceives the world to be and what his take is on it. And then in the future, people will see kind of what was going on here from from his perspective," he says.