Carolyn Cushing’s letter to the editor on the necessity of restoring Indigenous history, not erasing it (“Arts Council’s apology opens long-closed door,” Gazette April 19) is right on target when it comes to teaching and learning our history. But it has nothing to do with the Northampton Arts Council, whose main function is— and should remain! — “to support and nurture the arts in the city of Northampton ... and seek to improve public awareness of the arts,” as it says in the first sentence of its website.

You don’t restore Indigenous history by suppressing good paintings and rewarding bad ones, whether the artists are Indigenous or not. Nor by shutting down an art show and then making a late, half-hearted apology for it.

David Ball

Northampton

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