Cultural misappropriation

Its fashion week here in NZ, and there been some feathers flying (if you'll excuse the pun) at the fact that a very well known local designer sent a model down the runway dressed like this...





Naturally there has been a lot of discussion on it which I've been watching with interest, and I was wondering what the opinions here are.

Edit - for interest, this is an article thats surfaced several times during the discussions... http://nativeappropriations.com/2010/04/but-why-cant-i-wear-a-hipster-headdress.html

In the words of the joker "why so serious"....
I think people take things waaaaay too seriously...I'm sure there were/are people that felt "offended" by this....they need to unbunch their panties from their backsides and loosen up....some of these same people that get offended laugh at stereotypes of other groups, which makes them hypocrites of the worst kind...if you can't laugh at yourself you have no right to laugh at others...

It's a fashion show....costumes...nothing more...aren't there more important social issues than what some half starved woman was asked to wear?

Obviously the author of the article has never been to some of the festivals here...the chasco indians and seminoles do in fact sell headdresses and other native made goods...they also host a 3week long seminar educating on native traditions...and most of the natives I've met don't share the concerns as the author...they're more progressive...years ago some group was trying to force florida state university to change their mascot (their mascot is a seminole indian) the seminole tribe came to the defense of the school, not the group trying to force the change...

I'm part cheyenne indian myself and I don't see the big deal...maybe because I grew up in the "white community"...or perhaps most likely becauseI know how to get over it and move forward instead of clinging to the past

My uncle did teach to me to play and interact with feathers
all the time...

He was my main father in my upbringing,because my real
father was working many hours.

I have aboriginal blood ancestry by part of great great
grandmother,I think.(lineage of blood of my mother)

Maybe Mapuche of the Pampas.

Is a mix of diverse tribes here.

I did grow with tools around my of aboriginal cultures:
arrows, and others.
As a game,my uncle did putting feathers in my head,and
he explain that this means sign of leadership.

When I boy,thats was a great thing for me.

Gave me courage

My uncle was celebrating all the time,in all place when he discover
feathers...T.V movies...publicity in streets...or
wherever he see with laughs and sharing,maybe because this for him
was meaning remember the Pampa (place where he born) and their culture.

But all time,did know thats means authorithy and sign of honor.

I think he was happy to look feathers in all places.

My uncle was drives a taxi and become in a very modern citizen with
some elements of misticism (heal with words) know the future weather
and a supernatural cunning to fight and hunt...

One day a thief in back of their taxi with a gun
make menaces to him.

He did catch the hand with gun ,
bite ear,and cut a part with their teeth !!

I remember him like a hero, in the style of
Cocodrilo Dundee.

One day thief empty their summer house,and he look a thread,
(thief go with sewing box)...

He followed,to the point to discovered the path of the thief.

I'm actually heavily involved in this debate in my Native American community on stereotypes. What I can't understand is that someone that gets wildly up in arms with something like that image had absolutely no problem with the entire Twilight series genre. As RyuJin said "It's a fashion show....costumes...nothing more...aren't there more important social issues than what some half starved woman was asked to wear?"

In the last semester of classes I taught I had a student present on this very topic, she chose the Washington Redskin debate. She had a great perspective on it and even went further to talk about how she was a secretary at a local school district that was being sued for millions of dollars because the school Mascot was the "Midgets". So some guy who is legally considered a "Midget" is suing because he's offended. Her opinion was that mascots are mascots and should not be changed. Her classmates agreed with her.

Now that being said, having grown up in a Native American based family the thought of a Redneck drunk white guy wearing sacred regalia screaming at a football game sort of chafes me a bit. Not in the I'm going to the supreme court cause he's out of hand but perhaps a sadness because that guy doesn't understand my culture and what it mean to have feathers or headdresses. He's never been to a cultural event where a feather is dropped and elders surround the feather and pray to the Great Spirit and offer apologies to that energy that has fallen. Sometimes they even confiscate the feather to be re-gifted or used somewhere else. Or instead it is smudged along with the person who dropped it, prayed with and upon and the ceremony can continue. He also has not been part of the struggle of Native America for just trying to live. He doesn't know what it takes to earn a single feather, nor the sacredness of owning that feather and what it entails. He will never know what its like to defend his family with bows and arrows against cavalry, or have his children taken away and sent to boarding schools to have white society literally beaten into them. He will never know what it feels like to not even be treated as a citizen in his own lands or be able to practice his religion without prejudice.

I realize that same guy isn't wearing the same thing that my elders, my family, and my brothers are wearing but he's certainly trying to capture that idea. However I guess in being a bigger person, in the end its better to walk away and know in my heart what is true and authentic to my culture and people and never sell what we as a people consider sacred.

Maybe in off topic

I think aboriginal tribes need help in many ways and conscience.

in Latinamerica by example Kayapò Chief Raoni,

Felix Diaz Quom in Argentina

( please search who / if want in web)

Aboriginal rights is one of my worries.

Sorry to interject, but this has happened before, See here , and wait, here too . The first one though perhaps less... respectful (right word?).

I don't know what's right with this and what isn't; it isn't my culture so I don't really have the right to say whether or not anyone should be offended. If there is some degree of respect, then perhaps I don't see a problem.

This kind of thing actually happens all the time. Even if a person agrees or doesn't agree, people do love seeing traditional cultures that's why this continues. Is that a good thing? Is it a bad thing? Is it appropriate? Is it disrespectful? I don't have the answers to that.

In the end I guess we all need to make our own educated decisions.

I use the word ( "rights" )

"Aboriginal rights"

a little off topic

not about feathers strictly

What would be people's reaction if someone dressed up in Nazi regalia? Or a burka?

I wouldn't force people not to wear such things, but I too would educate them on being more sensitive about the issues surrounding them.

There are two people in this situation, the person complaining and the person 'causing' the complaint.

Saying "Don't take things too seriously" puts everything on the person complaining, while letting the person 'causing' the complaint continue to act the same way.

Both parties need to be more conscientious.

As my wife would say, "If it harm none, do as ye will.".

Obviously someone was harmed. We only act out when we feel attacked or we are hungry.

The Jedi in me says "Are you so attached to a costume or a symbol that you willfully allow another to suffer inorder to retain it?"

There is a reason I don't wear clothing with symbols on it anymore(mostly. People give you a gift its respectful to wer it a few times before you donate it)

But to balance that out, I enjoy seeing adults with the faces full of wonder and happiness, like a child. That is what many of these "misappropriations" do for people.