Appropriation of Indigenous traditions in Western in art / culture / music
The recently growing trend of appropriating Indigenous cultures in Western fashion, art, literature and music subcultures is based on the same insensitivities and misunderstandings of what decolonization looks like as the caricaturization of Aboiriginal identities in sports such as American Football, that has been protested against for decades now. The exploitation and bastardization of the image of the “Dead Indian” (1) in sporting mascots continues to be defended by a warped rationale of preservation and through similar justification, white youth still believe that wearing war bonnets to music festivals and painting their faces brown on Halloween are innocuous acts. A common response when criticized about these choices is to vindicate their own innocence using arguments that go something like “we are all one,” “I don’t see color” or “my intentions are good.” In Australia, for example, these attitudes are fostered in “bush doof” culture; an underground music scene where predominantly white people congregate, consume psychedelic drugs in hopes of reaching elevated levels of consciousness and enlightenment, and embrace a melting pot of whichever traditions, values and religions fascinate them the most.
This 21st century white hippie rhetoric, which preaches idealized notions of peace dogmatically as a catch-all solution to social injustice and systemic oppression, implicitly tells the marginalized to “calm down” and allow the colonial project to continue to take its course in the political sphere as well as in activism. The issue is complicated when, for example, people who are or claim to be Native Americans vehemently defend the right of the Washington NFL team to name themselves the Redskins (2), or when iconic people of color, such as Pharrell Williams, are seen wearing headdress on the covers of fashion magazines.
As McGill University law graduate Vanessa Udy mentions (3), some progress is being made, as can be seen in how music festivals (such as British Columbia’s Bass Coast and Montreal’s Oshega Music and Arts Festival) are beginning to “ban the popular practice of wearing headdresses.” (4). But I don’t wish to focus on these kinds of outside perspectives on whether we’re headed in the right direction or not, nor do I want to simply list all the manifestations of this phenomenon and why they are problematic, as this is common knowledge in the discourse of Indigenous and post-colonial studies. Instead, I would like to explore Indigenous perspectives on the nuances of this issue (for example, Chelsea Vowel’s blog post (5) and make a clear distinction between appreciation and appropriation. In doing so, I hope to formulate a meticulous argument against these appropriative trends, particularly aimed at the “young left,” who live by a mantra of “free speech / expression,” and hopefully convince those who are on the fence that these practices that may seem harmless to them are in fact perpetuating a long history of harmful Western imperialism.
______________________________________________________________________
Bibliography
- King, Thomas. 2012. The Inconvenient Indian. [Toronto]: Doubleday Canada.
- McKenna, David. 2013. “Redskins’ Indian-Chief Defender: Not A Chief, Probably Not Indian”. Deadspin.Com. http://deadspin.com/redskins-indian-chief-defender-not-a-chief-probably-590973565
- Udy, Vanessa. 2015. “The Appropriation Of Aboriginal Cultural Heritage: Examining The Uses And Pitfalls Of The Canadian Intellectual Property Regime”. Intellectual Property Issues In Cultural Heritage. http://www.sfu.ca/ipinch/outputs/blog/canadian-intellectual-property-regime/
- Marsh, Calum. 2015. “Osheaga’s Headdress Ban Shows Festival’s Zero Tolerance For Cultural Appropriation”. The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2015/jul/17/osheaga-music-festival-headdress-cultural-appropriation.
- Vowel, Chelsea. 2016. “An Open Letter To Non-Natives In Headdresses”. Blog. Âpihtawikosisân. http://apihtawikosisan.com/hall-of-shame/an-open-letter-to-non-natives-in-headdresses/.