Okay so let’s just get this straight at the outset. This
thing I’ve made – you think it’s pretty tacky, huh? Well I should hope so! I’ve made this dream
catcher as part of the Feather Your Nest exhibition to be shown at Gleaners inc
as part of the Craft Victoria's Craft Cubed events. My inspiration came
from reading an open letter Sasha Houston Brown wrote to Urban Outfitters, published on the racialicious blog, protesting the
use of Native American Indian designs and patterns labelled"
“Navajo” in their range of clothes and accessories.
It’s a fantastic letter. Here's a section:
“In all
seriousness, as a Native American woman, I am deeply distressed by your
company’s mass marketed collection of distasteful and racially demeaning
apparel and décor. I take personal offense to the blatant racism and perverted
cultural appropriation your store features this season as “fashion.”
All too often
industries, sports teams and ignorant individuals legitimize racism under the
guise of cultural “appreciation”. There is nothing honorable or historically
appreciative in selling items such as the Navajo Print Fabric Wrapped Flask,
Peace Treaty Feather Necklace, Staring at Stars Skull Native Headdress T-shirt
or the Navajo Hipster Panty. These and the dozens of other tacky products you
are currently selling referencing Native America make a mockery of our identity
and unique cultures."
So. My culture catcher piece is about how we westerners don’t hesitate to appropriate
other cultural totems and designs and incorporate them in fashion, commercial
enterprises, fashion or our western crafts without any consideration for the cultural
significance they may have to the indigenous culture of origin. The dream
catcher is the perfect example. It’s been adopted by white people and western
cultures through the New Age movement and transformed from a Native American
spiritual totem to a tacky accessory. If you search “dream catcher” on etsy
there are over 150 pages of results. Are all of these made with sensitivity to
the cultural and spiritual meaning of the object?
To amplify this in my piece I wanted to use synthetic and
tacky western things and techniques. I used chains and links to join things.
Made glitter pom poms and used fringing trim and synthetic flouro rope. Add in some
plastic love hearts and then the plastic sequins are the icing on the cake.
Within the tackiness I also wanted my piece to be interesting so I must admit
to quite liking my flouro string fake feathers made with crochet chain over wire and
a winding technique.
How do we feel when our spiritual symbols are used for
commercial items or fashion. Is the crucifix in this category for Christians?
Where do designers draw the line between inspiration and appropriation? When does it matter? And what if this happened in Australia? As I discovered from this very
insightful article by Samantha McHugh on
IP Whiteboard, “Australian labels Sportsgirl,
Country Road, Cooper St, Samvara and Tigerlily, to name but a few, have
previously featured items with the word ‘Navajo’ in the style-name” . She also
goes on to analyse what would happen legally if this happened in Australia with our
indigenous people's cultural symbols and designs, who do not have the same legal framework and protections that the Navajo people have with their trademark.
I think
the significance with the appropriation of indigenous cultural designs, taken and
used inappropriately, is that these cultures are already disenfranchised. They
have been disrespected – thrown off their lands and suffered the genocidal
policies of colonisation. What do they have left bit their cultural identity? As Sasha Houston Brown concludes:
“Urban Outfitters Inc. has taken Indigenous life ways
and artistic expressions and trivialized and sexualized them for the sake of
corporate profit. It is this kind of behavior that perpetuates the stereotype
of the white man’s Indian and allows for the ongoing commodification of an
entire ethnic group. Just as our traditional homelands were stolen and
expropriated without regard, so too has our very cultural identity."
So I hope you all find my dream catcher pretty bloody awful! I might add some more pom poms.....
