Cultural Appropriation
by Daniel Lampert
First, it was the canoes. They had traveled the lakes of Temagami, Ontario for decades, their bright red hulls and dream catcher insignia visible even from the shore. Now they have a simple outline of a loon instead, pasted over the dream catchers with epoxy. Next, it was the tipis. We had met in them every year to share our deepest feelings, our dreams, our fears. We were taught the “right” words to say as you enter, and to walk in one direction around the perimeter. Now they are dismantled, leaving a round patch of dirt in their absence; we still share, but now we sit in the open air or inside. Then, it was the sweat lodges. They had been reserved for the oldest campers, the ones who had crossed the James Bay, the ones who had stood in front of the fire and had not turned away. Now, the oldest campers go on a “vision quest,” a 24-hour fasting solo in the forest. All that remains are the piles of used sweat rocks, the stones of previous generations of Bay Trippers. Next, it was the teachings: the Medicine Wheel, the Four-Fold Way, blessing the river with tobacco; they had guided my adolescence, given me purpose, pushed my understanding of the world. Well, all of the symbols had done that: the dream catchers, the tipis, the sweat lodges, the teachings; they felt indelible from the camp experience.
Now they were absent - but for a good reason: cultural appropriation. They were murmurs of a past of injustice, practices extricated from Indigenous and First Nations tribes by a non-Indigenous canoeing camp. They were meaningful practices but - importantly - not ours. It was a hard realization for everyone at the camp; we did not feel like we were causing harm, yet we knew it would be wrong to continue a legacy of cultural appropriation. However, addressing cultural appropriation is no simple task. It starts with identification.
Identifying Cultural Appropriation
“Cultural appropriation” is more a concept than a defined, singular action. Providing an authoritative definition would be counterproductive, as cultural appropriation is best identified by those whose culture is appropriated. With no universal meaning, it is difficult to assess what classifies something as cultural appropriation versus cultural offense, misrepresentation, racism, appreciation, celebration, or otherwise. Appropriation comes from the Latin ad propriare, meaning “to make one’s own” (Mishan, 2022), but this does not provide much clarity. For example, converting religions could be seen as “making a culture one’s own,” but most scholars would not consider this cultural appropriation.
Perhaps a better approach is to first examine culture. “Culture…is that complex whole which includes knowledge, belief, art, morals, law, custom, and any other capabilities and habits acquired by man as a member of society” (Encyclopedia Britannica, 2023). Culture’s range as a term is staggering, and full essays could seek to define it alone. Within the scope of cultural appropriation, culture is a thing that can be appropriated, stolen from its rightful place and owners. However, “appropriating a culture” often feels abstract and conceptual, which hinders our ability to reduce harm. Rather, “cultural property” is a more palpable label, a concrete thing that can be stolen, including language, symbols, folklore, tradition and more (Lalonde, 2021). Culture forms as groups experience unique “formative conditions” (Lalonde, 2021) and acquire distinctive cultural property along the way. To own cultural property is to live with it and by it, to breathe it as your identity. Many people belong to multiple cultures, each with their own heritage and cultural property. As time passes, cultural property organically becomes the property of humanity, untethered to any specific group. This cultural exchange is natural and boundless, paving the way for art, innovation, and connection.
Cultural appropriation, on the other hand, is anything but natural. Whereas cultural exchange is like marbles ricocheting against one another, cultural appropriation is the twisted, colonial form of Hungry Hungry Hippos. Originating in academic circles in the 1980s (Mishan, 2022), cultural appropriation refers to theft of cultural property. Given the variety of forms of cultural property, This theft is classified in three categories: object appropriation, content appropriation, and subject appropriation (Young, 2008).
- Object appropriation is the physical theft of cultural property, including significant art pieces and religious items. The British Empire is famous for its object appropriation, proudly displaying its stolen goods in museums for the world to see. Notably, this form of appropriation is the only one that includes physical theft, which makes some scholars skeptical of its classification as cultural appropriation (Lenard & Balint, 2020).
- Content appropriation is the theft of intangible cultural property, including the use of one culture’s symbols, practices, and language by those in another culture. Think of Native American sport mascots, feathered headdresses at music festivals, and tribal tattoos worn by non-tribal members. Appropriating content rips the heart out of a culture, violently whittling and mangling it to suit outsiders who lack the background and experience to understand. Content appropriation is the most common form of cultural appropriation, which obscures the line between it and pure cultural exchange.
- Subject appropriation is the theft of cultural voice; in other words, it is the depiction of other cultures as if from an insider’s perspective. A small subset of cultural appropriation, subject appropriation mainly encompasses writing and media, such as a White man writing a novel with a Black female protagonist. Of course, authors are not expected to only write about their personal experiences; fiction exists to imagine beyond ourselves. Nonetheless, to claim another culture’s voice as one’s own extracts that voice from the culture itself, corrupting it in the process.
Broad categories alone do not provide a complete understanding of cultural appropriation, nor do they settle the murky waters between appropriation and exchange. If a non-Indigenous person wears a feathered headdress - known as a Plains Indian headdress or war bonnet (Wood, 2017) - to a music festival, are they the one at fault? Or is the (likely) non-Indigenous headdress manufacturer culpable instead? If a non-Italian person eats Italian cuisine, most would deny any form of cultural appropriation, but what if that person opens an Italian restaurant? In the case of the canoeing camp, many rituals were originally taught by First Nations peoples of the Temagami region; was their continued practice an extension of a cultural gift, or was it theft? Am I to blame for partaking in these appropriated practices?
Some argue that certain qualities of an action can classify it as cultural appropriation: “Cultural appropriation can be defined as the taking of a valuable, yet reusable or non-exhaustible aspect, of another individual’s culture (usually a symbol or a practice), for one’s own use, where the taker knows what she is doing (or reasonably should know), and where the context of this taking is contested” (Lenard & Balint, 2020). Within this attempted definition, Lenard & Balint impose four conditions: (1) acts of cultural appropriation must adopt something from another culture without stealing it (specifically content appropriation), (2) the originating culture must claim that thing’s cultural value, (3) that culture must also contest that thing’s adoption, and (4) the appropriator must have knowledge of the thing’s importance to the originating culture. Interestingly, these criteria place responsibility on both parties. Appropriated cultures must actively choose to protect their cultural property, which poses difficulties for minority groups who are given less of a voice in society. Additionally, according to Lenard & Balint, acts of ignorance would not classify as cultural appropriation, even if they have the same outcomes. In fact, these qualifications do not depend on an action’s outcome at all, which begs the question: although cultural appropriation is wrong, who does it harm?
Harms of Cultural Appropriation
Many agree that a non-Indigenous person should not wear a headdress to a music festival because it is offensive. But cultural appropriation is not just offensive - it poses tangible dangers, and its main victim is (naturally) the cultures from which it appropriates. These dangers include non-recognition, misrecognition, and exploitation (Lalonde, 2021), and appropriative acts often include a mix of the three. Non-recognition is the silencing of another culture that occurs when one appropriates. By taking a culture’s symbols and practices, one removes cultural property from its rightful owners, and these owners may never retrieve it again. As appropriative practices are incorporated into other cultures, the original culture loses its ties to that practice, acting as a form of erasure by absorption. Misrecognition is the harm caused by simplifying; by adopting a singular practice of another culture, one loses the practice’s original surrounding ecosystem and history. As such, stereotyping is a common form of misrecognition, as cultures are distilled into their most outwardly prominent features. Exploitation is one of the clearest harms of cultural appropriation, as it continues a cycle of subjugating minority groups for profit. In fact, some even claim exploitation as a requirement to classify an act as cultural appropriation (Mishan, 2022).
Exploitation is an especially potent harm because it is a central function of the colonial machine. It often comes in the form of fashion, art, and other material goods that can be commercially produced, but it includes all profit gained through cultural appropriation. A straightforward example is Aviator Nation, a California-based clothing brand that was criticized for advertising and selling moccasins, tipis, and other designs emulating Native American symbols (Harper, 2022). A less obvious example is Lana Del Rey profiting from wearing a headdress in her 2012 music video for “Ride.” In the video, she sits on a motorcycle waving a gun and wearing a Plains Indian feathered headdress while fire burns behind her (Del Rey, 2012). In addition to being offensive, the profit from the video and the publicity that ensued is an example of exploitation. Even a canoeing camp using Indigenous practices out of admiration and respect is an example of exploitation because the camp made money in the process. The key idea is that exploitation-based cultural appropriation separates cultures from their own practices for economic gain, and the revenue rarely makes its way back to minority communities.
Cultural appropriation hurts minority communities more than just plain offense and economic injustice. A 2021 study found that the use of Native American symbols for sports mascots cause “low self-esteem, low community worth, and increased negative feelings of stress and depression” in Native Americans (Harper, 2022). Furthermore, “cultural disconnection, alienation and pressure to assimilate all contribute to higher rates of suicide among American Indians and Alaska Natives” (Harper, 2022). When people lose their cultural property, they lose themselves. Appropriation separates people from their identity and community, causing cultures to fade out by diffusion. Nonetheless, some argue that cultural appropriation is not inherently harmful; rather, the harms of cultural appropriation should be classified as cultural offense or other forms of racism (Young, 2008). However, perceptions of cultural appropriation do not support this idea, as people associate cultural appropriation with harmful actions (Mosley et al, 2024). No matter the opinion, cultural appropriation is a powerful force that must be stopped in order to preserve cultural identity - and lives.
From Appropriation to Appreciation
Why do people appropriate from other cultures in the first place? Rarely is it that they want to cause harm; aside from economically-motivated companies, most people appropriate out of admiration. Other cultures are different from our own, and they provide us endless opportunities for discovery. Majority culture lacks the identity and consistency that minority cultures have because it is just an amalgamation of practices gained from cultural exchange and appropriation. People long for the feeling of connection and novelty offered by minority cultures, whether it comes in the form of slang, fashion, or otherwise. Unfortunately, this longing usually leads to harmful appropriation. On the other hand, many critics of the concept of cultural appropriation argue that stopping all cultural engagement would lead to cultural erasure (Lalonde, 2021). To harmonize these, people can use cultural appreciation as a non-harmful means of cultural exchange. Instead of appropriating cultural practices, people can connect with those in other cultures they admire. Often, harm comes from a lack of communication with other cultures, which leads to non-recognition and misrecognition. Asking for permission to engage in another culture’s practices is a good first step, and working directly with other cultures is even better (Lalonde, 2021). That being said, not all cultural practices are meant to be shared, and this should be respected; distinctive cultural identity is what allows for cultural exchange in the first place.
As such, my camp has moved away from appropriation and toward a more natural exchange with surrounding First Nations tribes, including trips with local youth, scholarships, and dialogue with tribal leaders. It is just a start, but it could lead to restored relationships with those whose culture gave heart and meaning to so many canoe trips. As I look to the future of the camp, I think about the round dirt patches left by the tipis, and the vegetation that will soon emerge in their place.
References
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