I AM OVER THE FEATHERS!  PLEASE STOP!

if you go up to Mt. Shasta you will notice the new ageism run amock… there is this store called “Soul Connections”– it’s an ongoing joke between a friend and i– but it’s very sad.. in the store, i swear to you- you will find photos being sold of native people… except THEY ARE WHITE!

halloween is around the corner.. and you know what that means!  DRESS UP AND APPROPRIATE _________ NAME A CULTURE HERE.

aztec, navajo, its everywhere.  okay– i think the industry cant think of any other names.. there must only be two tribes in the world!  TRIBAL IS THE TREND in this years runway.

It’s one things to be inspired by something and use it to guide your work– it’s another thing to 1)  appropriate a culture 2) copy an entire peoples work and claim it as your own 3)  forget about history 4)  exotify something ….  the list goes on.. WHEN DID IT BECOME OKAY?

the fashion industry is guilty of all these things — in fact one of the basis of fashion is to copy one culture and turn it into a trend.  it’s complicated– but the industry makes it very easy to forget about history.

we all love beautiful things. i, myself use many prints in my work.   patterns, colors– but all of these once came from a story.  acknowledge the story.  learn from the story.  —yet what people do these days is completely erase history– NO it was not a game of cowboys and indians– and now we can wear headresses.  IT WAS GENOCIDE.  why is it so easy for people to otherize other people?
at least do your research- don’t call something aztec just cause it looks like what you think “aztec” would look like.  have you even ever met an aztec?  have you spoken to a tribe?– did they give you their blessings to make a headress and sell it?!

this blog keeps up with the madness here:  Native Appropriations

etsy crafters are guilty of this too… here’s a curation of the madness: