http://moniquill.tumblr.com/post/10573048919/ijustforgot-moniquill-velocicrafter
The images and the argument made in defense of them, while I understand that there is a lack of intention to offend and a desire to make up for it, is still a lot of “white-splaining”. Even with one having been raised in an area that was predominantly native, it doesn’t excuse the appropriation, which is still what was done here. I was raised in a very Italian neighborhood, and as much as I love the culture and will participate in events in the Italian community, I’m not going to claim a right to Italian culture because of the setting of my childhood. It’s worse when “Italian” gets replaced by a culture that has been oppressed and appropriated for over 300 years and still is on their home soil. We all have rich cultural backgrounds and don’t need to take from another for a “richer” rp experience. If it’s a tribal romance the OP wants? The Irish actually have that in their history; she can take from there.
Also, another fun fact I was told about: even when a hipster says, “My great grandmother was Cherokee, so I’m just exploring my roots,” if you lack the desire to register that background with a tribe and to actually learn directly about those roots, you are still appropriating. You are using an ancestor you do not honor enough to fully follow in their footsteps to excuse a rather gross “fashion trend”. The same thing goes with armchair shamans. Why use a bad, appropriated spiritualism with the excuse of a Native ancestor when that Native ancestor’s blood grants you the right to try to register and learn the real religion from an elder? Animism abounds in the history of most cultures: why do you have to take from Native practices so badly? It’s very different from reconstructionalism, where you simply convert and do ages of research on what is an otherwise dead religion, and arm-chairing is not comparable to switching from Catholicism to Buddhism: you aren’t joining a tribe, you aren’t learning from the elders, but taking tiny bits of their culture and saying it’s your right.
I honestly can’t speak further on that, because I’m not Native, but just… as it was said, be polite and thankful when you’re invited to participate in another culture’s traditions, but don’t push it with appropriation. If it isn’t daily wear and if it seriously has a religious connotation, don’t do it, and if you aren’t sure, don’t do it.
(Source: ijustforgot)
