Te Kete o Karaitiana Taiuru (Blog)

I have been calling out and educating perpetrators of cultural appropriation for decades. Of the hundreds of responses and abuse mocking me, there is a common theme as follows:

As a Maori/Indigenous Person (etc) you wear European clothes, a European watch, use a computer that your people didn’t use to have, drive a car which is European culture, yet you get offended when we use your culture.

Racism is a sign of a lack of intelligence and the lack of ability to think for oneself among many other negative issues. The common generalisations reflect this fact.

I want to analyse the racist generalisation that arise when cultural appropriation is ousted:

1. Māori and Indigenous Peoples were by force and coercion, colonised and suffered cultural assimilation by European cultures.
2. My ancestors home and lands were stolen by Europeans and my ancestors were then forced to live in European buildings, that are paid for, not stolen.
3. My ancestors food supplies were destroyed, confiscated and access removed by European colonisers who then forced my ancestors to purchase food from a shop, that are paid for, not stolen.
4. European culture forced me through legislation and society norms to wear European clothes and live in a European society with my European accessories that are paid for, not stolen.
5. Māori culture and beliefs were made illegal through legislation such as the Tohunga Suppression Act 1908 and the prevention by assimilation with the Native Schools Act and the Hunn Report’s recommendations, not by choice.
6. European property laws such as Copyright, TradeMarks and Patents  prevents me from seeing something I like from in European culture and just taking it or for me to take a creative license, like you do with my cultures property.
7. Unlike cultural appropriation where a dominant culture steals a minority culture ideas and traditions with no regard to the sensitivities and the meaning, Indigenous Knowledge and cultures do not have the same protection  as European and other dominant cultures do.

Next time you roll your eyes or get sick of hearing about cultural appropriation with minorities, please note that you must be a person of privilege, have little understanding of other peoples cultures and are likely a racist.

The best way to stop talk of cultural appropriation is to respect other cultures and to work together to legislate protection for minorities.