Colonization. In the Present Tense.

Something else that i've been thinking about lately, which i posted about on my other blog and which i'm apparently not done with yet, because here i am doing it again.

I was kind of disturbed to see a white girl selling a headdress at an anarchist craft sale a couple weeks ago.
(okay wait, anarchist craft sale? yeah i know. here are the fabled anarcho-capitalists we all thought were a joke. and i was one of them. hah! more about that fascinating contradiction later.)

I'm not going to outline the whole conversation i had with her about it, most of it is covered here
http://nativeappropriations.blogspot.com/2010/04/but-why-cant-i-wear-hipster-headdress.html
(i really recommend reading this, hits the sketchy racist nail right on the head)

She did have a few unique arguments, like that "we are all indigenous, because we were all born here", at which point i sort of just wanted to vomit all over her feathery handiwork and changed my tone from "have you ever considered..." to "that is racist, whitewashing bullshit".

I think the conversation ended when she tried to justify the whole thing by telling me how she made a dreamcatcher all by herself and then her "native friend" came over and saw it and said she'd magically found the right kind of wood to use. Clearly her 1/8 cherokee blood justifies everything. Clearly "their" gods smile down on her and approve. Vomit vomit vomit.

Anyway, the whole thing served to remind me of how fucked up it is that most people swallow the whole "Canada did some bad things while they were settling the country but colonialism is over and now the natives are all integrated, all the better for them, and everything is fine" argument. It always reminds me of the drunk person who says they USED TO be an alcoholic, but that they quit, and that the mickey in their hand is fine because they're better now. (no disrespect to folks dealing with alcoholism)

Just to be clear:

1. White folks continue to colonize Canada. Ongoing problem.
2. Any action we take that moves control over the public image, iconography, culture, history, etc, of first nations groups into our hands (ie white people making headdresses) is aiding in the colonization of those peoples.

There are times when people make art that's inspired by other cultures' art and claim that this is an homage, that it's a sign of respect, etc, and while a lot of the time this is clearly not true (the comic linked in that blog post up there is a great example), i'm not going to say that it's never, ever, ever true. However, there's a difference between being inspired or influenced by something and doing a cheap knock off of it to sell (or an overpriced bougie knock-off for that matter), and there's also a difference between being inspired or influenced by a culture and stereotyping a culture. So that gets complicated?

Then there's white people wearing first nations' traditional stuff, like mukluks, for example. When i see folks wearing these i (cynic that i am) tend to cringe and mutter "cultural appropriation" under my breath, but the truth is that there are lots of first nations artists in winnipeg that make mukluks, and lots of white folks that support them by buying them, and maybe that's not such a bad thing. But still complicated. Like, are you wearing those boots because you want to demonstrate that you are in solidarity with first nations folks, or because you like fetishizing other cultures that you actually know and care very little about, because it's edgy?