Native Appropriations

Last updated
Native Appropriations
Type of site
Blog
Available inEnglish
Owner Blogger
Created by Adrienne Keene
URL nativeappropriations.com
CommercialNo
LaunchedJanuary 11, 2010;13 years ago (2010-01-11)

Native Appropriations is a blog that critically discusses the ways that Indigenous people are depicted in mainstream, Euro-American dominated, culture. [1] [2] [3] Active since 2010, the website is created and maintained by Cherokee Nation scholar Adrienne Keene.

Contents

Subjects

Some of the most frequently discussed topics on the blog are "hipster headdresses", the Native American mascot controversy and appropriation and misrepresentations of Native American cultures in Hollywood movies. Targets of critique include the Washington Redskins use of an ethnic slur as the name for their football team, [4] The Lone Ranger movie remake, [5] misrepresentations of Native American spiritual beliefs in the work of author J. K. Rowling, [6] the wearing of a hipster headdress and statements by musician Christina Fallin, [7] Halloween "Pocahottie" costumes, [8] and Urban Outfitters. [9] Though much of the blog's commentary is critical, it is not exclusively so: Nelly Furtado, for example, has been praised for her respectful engagement with Native hoop and shawl dancers. [10]

Coverage and influence

Keene observes that Native Americans are barely represented in mainstream media, and journalists often turn to non-Native sources, rather than to Natives themselves, on the rare occasions when they do cover Native issues. [11] However, the increasing popularity of her blog and appearance on other social media such as Twitter has made her a widely quoted expert [12] on matters to do with appropriations, with mentions in the BBC, [11] NPR, [1] The Guardian , [13] the Phoenix New Times , [14] Al Jazeera, [15] Time magazine [16] and other major news outlets. The Guardian has credited her with leading a successful campaign against stereotypical imagery created by Paul Frank Industries: the company later invited Keene and other experts to help design new product lines working with Native artists. [13]

Related Research Articles

Wigger or wigga is a term for a white person of European ethnic origin who emulates the perceived mannerisms, language, and fashions associated with African-American culture, particularly hip hop. The term is a portmanteau of white and nigger, or white nigger.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pow wow</span> Native American and First Nations cultural dance gathering

A powwow is a gathering with dances held by many Native American and First Nations communities. Powwows today allow Indigenous people to socialize, dance, sing, and honor their cultures. Powwows may be private or public, indoors or outdoors. Dancing events can be competitive with monetary prizes. Powwows vary in length from single-day to weeklong events.

Cultural appropriation is the inappropriate or unacknowledged adoption of an element or elements of one culture or identity by members of another culture or identity. This can be especially controversial when members of a dominant culture appropriate from minority cultures. According to critics of the practice, cultural appropriation differs from acculturation, assimilation, or equal cultural exchange in that this appropriation is a form of colonialism. When cultural elements are copied from a minority culture by members of a dominant culture, and these elements are used outside of their original cultural context – sometimes even against the expressly stated wishes of members of the originating culture – the practice is often received negatively.

Streetwear is a style of casual clothing which became global in the 1990s. It grew from New York hip hop fashion and Californian surf culture to encompass elements of sportswear, punk, skateboarding and Japanese street fashion. Eventually haute couture became an influence. It commonly centers on casual, comfortable pieces such as jeans, T-shirts, baseball caps, and sneakers, and exclusivity through intentional product scarcity. Enthusiasts follow particular brands and try to obtain limited edition releases.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">War bonnet</span> Native American feathered headgear

War bonnets are feathered headgear traditionally worn by male leaders of the American Plains Indians Nations who have earned a place of great respect in their tribe. Originally they were sometimes worn into battle, but they are now primarily used for ceremonial occasions. In the Native American and First Nations communities that traditionally have these items of regalia, they are seen as items of great spiritual and political importance, only to be worn by those who have earned the right and honour through formal recognition by their people.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">LaDonna Harris</span> Native American social activist and politician

LaDonna Vita Tabbytite Harris is a Comanche Native American social activist and politician from Oklahoma. She is the founder and president of Americans for Indian Opportunity. Harris was a vice presidential candidate for the Citizens Party in the 1980 United States presidential election alongside Barry Commoner. She was the first Native American woman to run for vice president. In 2018, she became one of the inductees in the first induction ceremony held by the National Native American Hall of Fame.

In Navajo culture, a skin-walker is a type of harmful witch who has the ability to turn into, possess, or disguise themselves as an animal. The term is never used for healers.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hipster (contemporary subculture)</span> Subculture defined by claims to authenticity and uniqueness

The 21st-century hipster is a subculture. Fashion is one of the major markers of hipster identity. Members of the subculture typically do not self-identify as hipsters, and the word hipster is often used as a pejorative for someone who is pretentious or overly concerned with appearing trendy.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2010s in fashion</span> Fashion-related events during the 2010s

The 2010s were defined by hipster fashion, athleisure, a revival of austerity-era period pieces and alternative fashions, swag-inspired outfits, 1980s-style neon streetwear, and unisex 1990s-style elements influenced by grunge and skater fashions. The later years of the decade witnessed the growing importance in the western world of social media influencers paid to promote fast fashion brands on Pinterest and Instagram.

Wizarding World Digital is a digital publishing, e-commerce, entertainment and news company. It offers news, features, and articles as well as new and previously unreleased writing by J. K. Rowling regarding the Wizarding World. The site features Rowling's thoughts, several pages of unpublished text, and a sales resource for e-book and audiobook versions of the seven Harry Potter novels through Pottermore Publishing.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">The Halluci Nation</span> Canadian electronic music group

The Halluci Nation, formerly known as A Tribe Called Red, is a Canadian electronic music group who blend instrumental hip hop, reggae, moombahton and dubstep-influenced dance music with elements of First Nations music, particularly vocal chanting and drumming. Based in Ottawa, Ontario, the group consists of Tim "2oolman" Hill, and Ehren "Bear Witness" Thomas. Former members include co-founder DJ Jon Deck and Dan "DJ Shub" General, who left the band for personal reasons in spring 2014, and was replaced by Hill. Co-founder Ian "DJ NDN" Campeau left the band for health reasons in October 2017, with the band opting to remain a duo for the time being.

Hipster racism is engaging in behaviors typically regarded as racist and defending them as being performed ironically or satirically. Rachel Dubrofsky and Megan W. Wood have described it as being supposedly "too hip and self-aware to actually mean the racist stuff one expresses". This might include wearing blackface and other performances of stereotyped African Americans, use of the word nigger, and appropriating cultural dress. Talia Meer argues that hipster racism is rooted in what she calls "hipster exceptionalism", meaning "the idea that something ordinarily offensive or prejudiced is miraculously transformed into something clever, funny and socially relevant, by the assertion that said ordinarily offensive thing is ironic or satirical." As Leslie A. Hahner and Scott J. Varda described it, "those participating in acts of hipster racism understand those acts as racist when practiced by others, but rationalize their own racist performances through a presumed exceptionalism."

Chabad hipsters are the cross-acculturated members of the Chabad Hasidic community and contemporary hipster subculture. Beginning from the late 2000s through the 2010s, a minor trend of cross acculturation of Chabad Hasidism and hipster subculture appeared within the New York Jewish community. The first printed reference to this trend was the 2007 New York Press cover story, "Hipster Hassids" by Alyssa Pinsker. Later, according to The Jewish Daily Forward, a significant number of members of the Chabad Hasidic community, mostly residing in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, appear to now have adopted various cultural affinities of the local hipster subculture.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Political views of J. K. Rowling</span>

British author J. K. Rowling, writer of Harry Potter and other Wizarding World works, has garnered attention for her support of the Labour Party under Gordon Brown and her criticism of the party under Jeremy Corbyn, as well as her opposition to the Republican Party under Donald Trump. She opposed Scottish independence in a 2014 referendum and Brexit during the 2016 referendum to leave the European Union.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Keffiyeh</span> Traditional headdress worn by men

The keffiyeh or kufiyya, also known in Arabic as a ghutrah (غُترَة), shemagh, or ḥaṭṭah (حَطَّة), is a traditional headdress worn by men from parts of the Middle East.

The Indian Actors Association was formed around 1936 and was a non-profit Hollywood based organization. They formed after and were influenced by the War Paint Club, an organization meant to protect rights of Native American actors. Additionally, driven by the Hollywood practice of occasionally casting non-native actors as Native Americans in films, the Native actors working in Los Angeles at the time seized their opportunity to establish a pool of “authentic” indigenous actors to work in film.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Redface</span> Use of costumes to caricature Indigenous Americans

Redface is the wearing of makeup to darken or redden skin tone, or feathers, warpaint, etc. by non-Natives to impersonate a Native American or Indigenous Canadian person, or to in some other way perpetuate stereotypes of Indigenous peoples of Canada and the United States. It is analogous to the wearing of Blackface. In the early twentieth century, it was often white performers, who wore blackface or redface when portraying Plains Indians in Hollywood Westerns. In the early days of television sitcoms, "non-Native sitcom characters donned headdresses, carried tomahawks, spoke broken English, played Squanto at Thanksgiving gatherings, received 'Indian' names, danced wildly, and exhibited other examples of representations of redface".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Adrienne Keene</span> American and Native American academic, writer, and activist

Adrienne J. Keene is a Native American academic, writer, and activist. A member of the Cherokee Nation, she is the founder of Native Appropriations, a blog on contemporary Indigenous issues analyzing the way that Indigenous peoples are represented in popular culture, covering issues of cultural appropriation in fashion and music and stereotyping in film and other media. She is also an assistant professor of American Studies and Ethnic Studies at Brown University, where her research focuses on educational outcomes for Native students.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Native American fashion</span>

Native American fashion is the design and creation of high-fashion clothing and fashion accessories by Native Americans. Indigenous designers frequently incorporate motifs and customary materials into their wearable artworks, providing a basis for creating items for the haute couture and international fashion markets. Their designs may result from techniques such as beadwork, quillwork, leather, and textile arts, such as weaving, twining, and tufting. In some cases, however, they choose not to include any materials associated with Indigenous cultures.

Jessica Metcalfe is a Native American blogger. She is a citizen of the Turtle Mountain Chippewa Tribe in Belcourt, North Dakota.

References

  1. 1 2 "Q&A: How Is The Native College Experience Different?". nprEd. Archived from the original on July 29, 2014. Retrieved April 7, 2016.
  2. "Powwow Party Flub Leads To Fashion Line". Npr.org. 12 August 2013. Retrieved 6 January 2015.
  3. "Spring's least-wanted fashion trend: The co-opting of Aboriginal dress". Elle Canada. Retrieved 6 January 2015.
  4. "Bustle". Bustle.com. 3 February 2014. Retrieved 6 January 2015.
  5. "The Real Problem With a Lone Ranger Movie? It's the Racism, Stupid". Indian Country Today Media Network.com. Retrieved 6 January 2015.
  6. Keene, Dr. Adrienne, "Magic in North America Part 1: Ugh." at Native Appropriations, 8 March 2016. Accessed 9 April 2016. "What happens when Rowling pulls this in, is we as Native people are now opened up to a barrage of questions about these beliefs and traditions…but these are not things that need or should be discussed by outsiders. At all. I'm sorry if that seems 'unfair,' but that's how our cultures survive."
  7. "Newspaper Rock". Newspaperrock.bluecorncomics.com. Retrieved 6 January 2015.
  8. "Spring's least-wanted fashion trend: The co-opting of Aboriginal dress". Elle Canada. Retrieved 6 January 2015.
  9. "Fashion designer Paul Frank teams up with Native American artists". Denverpost.com. 17 August 2013. Retrieved 6 January 2015.
  10. "Nelly Furtado's "Big Hoops" Video: Native dancers represent!". Native Appropriations. 8 May 2012. Retrieved 6 January 2015.
  11. 1 2 "BBC News - #BBCtrending: Native Americans reject 'super drunk' label". BBC News. 20 May 2014. Retrieved 6 January 2015.
  12. "Powwow Party Flub Leads To Fashion Line". NPR. Archived from the original on April 28, 2014. Retrieved April 7, 2016.
  13. 1 2 Tansy Hoskins (22 August 2013). "Fake Native American clothing ranges show the darker side of fashion". the Guardian. Retrieved 6 January 2015.
  14. Rebekah Zemansky (18 September 2012). "Bloggers Adrienne Keene and Dr. Jessica Metcalfe on Native Headdresses, Patterns, and "Aztec" Labels in Popular Fashion". Jackalope Ranch. Retrieved 6 January 2015.
  15. "Don't Trend on My Culture" . Retrieved 6 January 2015.
  16. "Johnny Depp as Tonto: Is 'The Lone Ranger' Racist? - TIME.com". TIME.com. 3 July 2013. Retrieved 6 January 2015.