You should really check out that link^^
This reminds me so much of Americans who like, bring Captain America shields to protests and stuff! Or even like, when councilman Lan Diep was sworn in holding Captain America’s shield:
There’s really no difference here, especially if you don’t use condescending, colonialist language like “tribesmen” and “These depictions are intended to give the person using it the powers of what they’re depicting.” Apparently the difference between “striving for ideals” and acquiring “powers” is whether or not you adhere to the dominant culture in the United States?
The problem here is this is how stuff like this is taught in art history classes, as if it’s somehow mind-blowingly quaint that indigenous people anywhere like a freaking comic book character, or use his likeness as a “talisman.” *eyeroll*
There’s an obnoxiously pervasive narrative I see all the time around indigenous peoples from all over the world, that instead of making conscious aesthetic choices, they have somehow been “tricked” into liking something inherently inappropriate or anachronistic.
I’ve seen this narrative pressed onto the Quechua and Aymara Cholitas of Bolivia, implying that they were “tricked” into choosing to wear bowler hats because some mythical western trader of long ago had a surplus of too-small hats:
Or in North America, a lot of traditional regalia like Jingle Dress, Fancy Shawl, Grass Dance or Ribbon Skirt is called “garish”, and I’ve heard non-Native people complain that it doesn’t look “Traditional enough” (!!!) because it uses bright or neon fabric, beads, and trim materials.
[sold out pre-made Jingle Dresses from Powwowfabrics.com]
Kiowa artist Teri Greeves designed this piece called Great Lakes Girls, a synthesis of traditional bead and quill-work that utterly transforms high-heeled tennis shoes designed by Steve Madden. The women depicted in Jingle Dress represent the artist’s husband’s Anishinabe people, and some of the materials used, like spiny-oyster shell, come from the southwest and are often used in jewelry made by Diné people.
The artificial conflict that a work like this creates in a non-Native viewer is based on the assumption that the “tradition” of indigenous peoples, and overall, our cultures, MUST remain static in order to be seen as “authentic” to the dominant culture. Even more frustrating, I often see the concept of Pan-Native culture and identities discussed as if this can ONLY mean a false sense of sameness imposed by colonialism and colonial structures, rather than an actual show of solidarity between Native peoples in philosophies, practices, and activism.
The lack of nuance around understanding these synthesized cultures leads to the delegitimization and erasure of traditions like the Mardi Gras Indians, Baby Dolls, Skull and Bones gangs, and their connection to both sacred clown traditions like Heyókȟa and West African dance and costume traditions.
I personally believe that decolonization and resistance can only be possible once the concept that appeal to (and categorization by) the dominant culture is a necessary step, is disposed of. I reject the notion that we must accept a binary existence of one or the Other, as if we can only be Historical or Modern but never both. As if a living culture is out of the question, or some kind of oxymoron.
But the biggest wall between the Self and the Other that I’m trying to break down here is the notion in the original post: that the academic teacher/learner and the “topic” are somehow eternally separated by both time and geographical distance. I’m sick and tired of being traumatized by being taught Who I Am and What I Believe by someone who doesn’t actually know, and doesn’t really believe I can exist in the same room they inhabit.
What this comes back to is a quote I posted a few days ago on how art/education/community intersect:
The word “art” is something the West has never understood. Art is supposed to be a part of a community. Like, scholars are supposed to be a part of a community… Art is to decorate people’s houses, their skin, their clothes, to make them expand their minds, and it’s supposed to be right in the community, where they can have it when they want it… It’s supposed to be as essential as a grocery store… that’s the only way art can function naturally. -Amiri Baraka
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