Including Aboriginal Art in the Exhibition at the Art Gallery of Ontario, Canada, and its Implications to the Art History of Hokkaido.

Canadian art galleries have long been criticized for their poor inclusion of First Nations art, especially historical works. In November 2008, the Art Gallery of Ontario (AGO), Toronto, Canada, opened new Canadian art gallery halls, with 2,000 new acquisitions donated by Ken Thomson. The AGO hired Gerald McMaster, who has tried to make historical First Nations art a key element of the story of Canadian art, as its first Aboriginal curator of the AGO’s Canadian art department. This article aims to address the following questions: whether or not AGO’s new venture has been successful, especially in terms of its public appeal; why the poor inclusion of historical First Nations art in the art gallery is problematic; and why the juxtaposition of Indigenous and non-Indigenous artworks is meaningful. This article also aims to examine what insight Canada’s case study might provide to the art history of Hokkaido, Japan, where the Indigenous people of Japan (Ainu) have been colonized and Ainu art has been excluded from art galleries.