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Cultural appropriation is harmful because it is an ex- tension of centuries of racism, genocide, and oppression. Cultural appropriation treats all aspects of marginalized cultures (also known as targets of oppression) as free for the taking.
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How to avoid being culturally disrespectful
If you admire an aspect of another culture, then learn about it and purchase items directly fromSenior Pow Wow Dancers a person of that culture. If you like the look of Cowichan sweaters, don’t buy a “Cowichan-inspired” sweater from a retail giant, buy from a Coast Salish knitter or an Indigenous-owned store that buys sweaters from the knitters. That is cultural respect.
Don’t refer to a culture or a People as exotic. That emphasizes the “otherness” of them. To them their culture is not exotic, it’s who they are and what is important to them.
Don’t amp up or modernize aspects of another culture because by doing so suggests that the modernized rendition by a non-Indigenous entity makes it better.
Don’t assume that it’s okay to “borrow” aspects from another culture. In many Indigenous cultures, strict and ancient protocols dictate who can sing certain songs, perform certain dances, tell certain stories. We don’t just take from one another.
“Borrowing” from another culture is symptomatic of the history of colonialism in which the dominant/colonizing culture assumes everything from the colonized culture is there for the taking. And that’s been a pattern in the history of this country.
Canada’s Complicated History with First Nation Totem Poles
Aboriginal Repatriation of Ancestral Remains and Artifacts
How cultural appropriation contributes to the endangerment of Indigenous women
When someone from one culture chooses to emulate members of another culture for entertainment, it is more than culturally disrespectful.
Explanation:
