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Cultural appropriation: Editor's Notes #266
July 25, 2018
Hello,

Look, then, into thine heart, and write!
—Henry Wadsworth Longfellow


In this issue:

1. Cultural appropriation
2. Tickled my funny bone
3. Interesting Web site
4. Writing prompt

1. Cultural appropriation
Scarlett Johansson stepped away from a transgender role due to social pressure. Sports teams struggle (or not) to come to terms with using indigenous names. People wear bindis as a fashion statement instead of as a spiritual practice. Cultural appropriation is in the air we breathe these days. Not that it’s suddenly more prevalent, but that we are suddenly being made aware of it, and it makes us uncomfortable.

A few weeks ago I decided it was time for me to write about cultural appropriation here. Scarlett Johansson wasn’t in the news at the time, and I had decided that to make a point, I would open with, My name is Audrey Owen, and I am writing from XXX. Then I was stuck. Do I follow that with "the traditional territory of the Squamish Nation," or "the unceded territory of the Squamish Nation"? Or is there something else?

I am ashamed to say that my first phone call was to our municipal office to find out what they say when they open their meetings. After I got my answer, I slapped myself up the side of my head and called the office of the Squamish band. That’s how I found out that I should say "the home of the Squamish people." (I passed that information to the man who opens the council meetings here.)

Cultural appropriation is something we do often without meaning to because we are so unaware of what it is. Writers struggle with this as much as anyone else. Any time we write about anyone or anything we do not have deep and intimate knowledge of, we risk being guilty of cultural appropriation.

Aron Williams gave me more than the correct wording for showing respect to the people who lived here long before my ancestors invaded North America. He gave me a key to staying out of trouble in the world of cultural appropriation.

He said that if you want to know about someone, "visit them in the house." I had previously been told this by an indigenous colleague when I was trying to make contact with another first nation about information I wanted to include in the book I was writing. I phoned. I sent emails. I wrote letters. No answers. Not over a period of about five years. She told me I had to go into their territory to talk to them. That meant two days of driving into remote territory. That effort paid of in huge dividends. But it wasn’t until I heard Aron’s words that I realized there was a principle at work. No matter who I want to write about, I need to "visit the house."

Aron went on to say that each family in the village will have a unique story, meaning that I can’t take what one person says to be enough of the story of a culture to make me expert enough to write about it with authority.

Writers are artists, and artists imagine things, whole worlds, inner lives, conflicts and resolutions. That’s good. And if we want to imagine the lives of those who are different from us in important ways, we need to "visit the house." And while we are there, we need to listen, listen, listen. Only when we can listen deeply and with sensitivity can we write with truth.

And if you stumble along this new path, as I’m sure you will, take heart from the fact that even as I was researching cultural appropriation, I approached my town council first instead of the seat of the culture I was trying to acknowledge. I plan to do better. Will you join me?

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2.Tickled my funny bone
I'm supposed to respect my elders, but now-a-days it’s getting harder and harder to find one.

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3. Interesting Web site
Here is a much longer, more erudite, and opposing take on cultural appropriation.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/sep/13/lionel-shrivers-full-speech-i-hope-the-concept-of-cultural-appropriation-is-a-passing-fad

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4. Writing prompt
Write one paragraph involving any character set in your neighbourhood. Next, write one paragraph about a similar character set in another town you have visited. Finally, write one paragraph about a similar character set in a place you have never been to.

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