Imitation Inuit artifacts are everywhere, but a new treaty is trying to change that

Imitations of Inuit art and artifacts — mass-produced for profit — are all over the internet.

A quick search for an ulu on Amazon, for example, brings up dozens of knives which claim to be the real thing.

One such knife that Bernice Kootoo Clarke, owner of Kuutuu Cultural Consulting, points out is from a company called Dalstrong. 

The Toronto-based company markets them as "traditional Alaskan fish knives" manufactured in China, as stated on its website. 

Dalstrong has not responded to CBC's request for comment. 

"The ulu is the woman's knife and it is very special to receive your first ulu," Clarke said. 

"Me gifting my daughter her first ulu ... comes from my spirit, my heart, and my people as an Inuk woman."

Imitations of all types of Inuit artifacts, including inuksuit (inushuks), are a problem Nunavut NDP MP Lori Idlout has seen grow over the years. 

"We see the disparity that those kinds of products generate between those non-Inuit who mass produce them, and Inuit who could have benefited from the economic opportunities if they had made them themselves," Idlout said. 

"It's their ingenuity that is being stolen and those that are stealing from Inuit ... they don't care."

The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), an agency of the United Nations, wants to change that as they negotiate ways to protect traditional knowledge. 

In May, WIPO adopted a 10-page treaty to protect traditional knowledge associated with genetic resources that still needs to be ratified. 

For example, companies making cosmetics with Indigenous plants must, under the agreement, disclose the country, or community, that knowledge came from.

It would also allow countries to establish databases of genetic resources and associated traditional knowledge.