Q_2

Artist

[qwalsius]

hipster headdress epidemic

One thing I didn't share from the New York trip to the Indigenous New Media Symposium was following the visit on our way to get dinner we came across a venue of an art opening. I don't have a pic coz my phone was dead but on one wall about 14ft tall were about 10 dream catchers with a hand painted poem on the wall scripted in some cheesy high school 'I'm a rebel, look at me mom I'm pretending I'm Indian to get back at you and show my independence, crap". To the left of that was a huge 5' x 7' canvas print photo of what appeared to be a very pale girl with blonde hair and painted on 'tribal' tattoos with her back  to the viewer donning a headdress. I looked to my girl and as we neared the door out of curiosity we saw lots of blonde people wearing faux leather buckskin fringe attire with beadwork that came straight from Urban Outfitters as accessories. It was then we both turned back to the street knowing, there's no difference if we go in or not. It's a movement now. Like throwing a pebble at a tank. It's the appropriation apocalypse. My efforts now are aimed at finding patient zero and the hipster headdress outbreak...

[qwalsius]

American Icon Quote for the day

"I don't feel we did wrong in taking this great country away from them, if that's what you're asking. Our so-called stealing of this country from them was just a matter of survival. There were great numbers of people who needed new land, and the Indians were selfishly trying to keep it for themselves." - John Wayne Playboy Interview May 1971

p.269

[mycultureisnotatrend]

Why does it seem that "white people" (whatever that means) are forcibly denied the right to claim cultural appropriation? I don't identify with any race or culture (though I have a light skinned phenotype), I simply identify American. Why am I accused of cultural appropriation when no one bothers to ask me what my culture or ancestry is anyway? It seems no one cares about my journey through life and expression because I "look" like the "majority."

It’s because what’s termed as “white” is the dominant culture. White settlers and colonizers forced their culture onto most everyone else. What is “standard” or “normal” - is default white culture.  You can’t appropriate the dominant, especially if it was forced upon you.  The term just doesn’t apply because of the power imbalance.

[qwalsius]

I'm curious, what is your ethnic background?

[qwalsius]

The True Native American Experience

For years I've racked my brain on what the Native American experience is for someone who isn't Native American. I used to try Godfather analogies and then Star Wars. It was important to know we are not the African American movement for key reasons, one, we have not been migrated to another land and two, we have not had a equal rights movement. But back to the matter at hand, how does one see Native American history thru pop culture? Well Robert Zumeckis of course. I say this with tongue in cheek but lets be honest, this is a way to view the world today. Media informs our identity in the way mythology and lore did for old Europe from which the majority of America derives its eh hem, 'settlers/immigrants'. Anyhow, back to understanding the Native Experience. In more recent time movies like Avatar have likened themselves to the Native American experience yet it is really just another rendition of Dances with Wolves. Even Graham Green himself states in Reel Injun that it was a movie about a white guy surrounded by Indians rather than a movie about the people here themselves.

So why do I consider Back to the Future II the Native American experience. Well let's examine this idea. Marty McFly awakes to an alternate reality in which his step dad is all mighty and powerful. Native people as a generation of the 20th century were rounded up as a whole and removed from their families to forego their language and cultural experiences, therefore giving up the reality they knew as order. As a new generation coming to this alternative reality where their mother is hostage and the powerful (Biff) has take all that matters into their own, this is more on par. What we await is for Marty to awaken and rebel against this world that depicts the propaganda of superiority and the Inferior Native.

Perhaps the most important symbolism is in Marty and his parents. The father as the language and culture killed, robbed by time and disconnection and his mother the land; altered and manipulated for the sake of appearance but all in a name of temporary satisfaction. Biff has his eyes elsewhere on bigger items and agendas because nothing is enough, more oil, land and resources for me please thank you.