The article, Think Before You Appropriate is a clear and helpful guide to help those creating art and design to avoid cultural appropriation and misappropriation. These guide lines are for anyone who might be using Indigenous imagery in their art and design, but heavily emphasizes products and artworks for sale and commercial use. I am particularly interested in this subject because it is a theme that I am exploring currently for my “Inquiry question” in this very BEd program. I have always asked myself, “where is the line between using inspiration and reference imagery and appropriation in one’s visual art?”
I have been highly stimulated and motivated to work with imagery from various forms of visual culture, and I continue to do so in my art, but I believe I operate under some strong and defined boundaries. I want to encourage my students to work with sources of inspiration and reference visual culture, but always keeping in mind a big WHY in hug capital block letters! I always ask my self why I am using a pop culture reference before I do. Is it to make a statement? Is to use a visual literacy as a communication tool? Is it to utilize a vast library of symbolism that many already know the meaning of? To be honest, it is often to reference back to my own memories, pop cultural interests and identity. I try to have a solid idea of what is belonging to visual culture/pop culture and what is belonging to sensitive cultural content. I do admit that sometimes this line gets blurry. This is always why I ask myself why. This prevents me from many instances of cultural appropriation, because Indigenous cultural and motifs do not belong to my memory and identity. I will admit that I have overlooked some of these rules and may have not been sensitive and totally respectful for personal artwork in the past, but my motivations were for sketching and technique building. I have never crossed the line and publicly displayed or sold any of these artworks. In the past 3 years, I have become more educated and aware of cultural appropriation which makes me even more careful and fascinated about these rules and boundaries. I am highly motivated to learn even more about these issue so I can continue to make meaningful artwork and encourage my students to explore visual culture, while maintaining strong and healthy boundaries for cultural appropriation.
