June 15, 2010

Indian headdresses at Lightning in a Bottle

Another festival, another set of inappropriate headdresses. Adrienne Keene of the Native Appropriations blog notes the hypocrisy of these people:

Educating non-Natives at Lightning in a BottleThe other interesting part about LIB is that they bill themselves to be a progressive, environmental, save-the-rainforest type event. If you go to their website here, and look under the tab that says "environment" you can see more about their mission. This page caught my attention as well: http://lightninginabottle.org/environment/critical-beats/ which includes two images of Indigenous men from the Amazon and information about the "critical beats" organization, which uses indigenous songs, music, stories, and spoken word combined with western artists' music to create new songs that they sell to raise money and awareness on Indigenous issues. Interesting stuff, but I don't know enough about it to formulate a total opinion.

Anyway, my point is that I always find it hard to believe when people who are "aware" and "tuned in" still think it's OK to don a headdress or offer "Native" ceremonies. I'm sure they would use the "honoring" argument, which we know is just as offensive as wearing the headdress itself.
Comment:  For more on the subject, see Indian Headdresses at Sasquatch! and Why Hipster Headdresses Aren't Okay.

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