Selchie Productions: Top ten inapproriate cultural appropriations
© 8th Fire - CBC
1. Hipster headdress: From Ke$ha’s stage garb to the designs of I am Howling Wolf, one really needs to know the difference between expression and appropriation.
2. Halloween native: Nothing says cultural insensitivity like dressing your kids as adorable little Indians — yikes! Or even worse, how about some bedroom role-play living out your favourite fur trader fantasy?3. Knock off mukluks: They are everywhere these days and usually produced cheaply in China. Buy theseinstead and support an Aboriginal owned company that works with the Centre for Aboriginal Human Resource Development (CAHRD).
4. Russian figure skating outfits: Who knows what Russian figure skating champions Oksana Domnina and Maxim Shabalin where thinking when they delivered this performance based upon so-called Australian indigenous designs.
5. Navajo line at Urban Outfitters: Sasha Houston Brown, a contributor to the the blog Racialicious and a memeber of the Santee Sioux Nation was so incensed by Urban Outfitter’s “Navajo” line last year that she posted this letter to the hip clothing company, which was later picked up by the Huffington Post. Two of the main items in question were the “Navajo Print Fabric Wrapped Flask” and “Navajo Hipster Panty” — seriously, we couldn’t make this stuff up — the names of which were soon changed after multiple media outlets picked up on the controversy.
6. OutKast at the Grammys: It doesn’t take a degree in cultural studies to see what is wrong with this performance… 7. Rip-off Cowichan sweaters: Members of the Cowichan First Nation on Vancouver Island felt ripped off when Hudson’s Bay Company came out with some of the designs for Canada’s recent Olympic uniforms.
8. Dreamcatchers: Knock-off dreamcatchers are a dime a dozen. To be truly authentic they should be Ojibway made.
9. Miss Canada: During the Miss Universe Pageant of 2011, Chelsae Durocher, Miss Canada, swung for the cultural appropriation fences and hit a homer with this outfit. To be fair, the competition had a national costume component. Apparently lumberjack flannel or a hockey jersey just wouldn’t do.
10. Too Native hockey jerseys? When team Canada’s hockey jerseys were unveiled for the Vancouver Olympics some media outlets felt the logo, designed by by Musqueam artist Debra Sparrow (with help from Nike) was “too native.” Comedian Ryan McMahon had this to say in response.
(via tealrallythong)
