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why Indigenous culture appropriation within kpop needs to be taken more seriously: a thread made by an Qikiqtaaluk Inuk 
firstly, let me address that i am Inuk and i, in no way, speak for every Indigenous group as there are thousands of tribes just within the americas. i will only be touching upon the real harm that ca enforces within kpop in general.
there are always MANY instances where idols or companies use Indigenous items as an aesthetic or costume. usually it's out of pure ignorance, however that doesn't excuse how much impact these idols have.
(i'm not really going to speak about the boho/hippie aesthetic in this thread, just know that hippie fashion stems from stealing from different Indigenous clothing for an aesthetic.)
whether or not these groups or companies had no bad intentions, they still have a platform of some sort. what their audience sees, what their audience consumes, what the gp sees through these idols; there's a degree of consequences in their actions.
around the globe, many cultures view Indigenous people as some sort of stereotype or even think Indigenous people are extinct. many believe Native American culture is monolith and generally clump many tribes together into one to create these harmful pan-indian stereotypes.
tw sexualization of Native women
this may be more extreme, but this gives us a good idea of what the media sees Native Americans as in sk. we're constantly used as the butt of the joke because they most likely believe we're extinct.
this may be more extreme, but this gives us a good idea of what the media sees Native Americans as in sk. we're constantly used as the butt of the joke because they most likely believe we're extinct.
some Natives may feel like their favourite idols are appreciating their culture and honoring it, but i call bs on that. why? because a lot of these groups and companies have an EXTREMELY narrow view of what Indigenous people are.
if a group uses any sacred item for an aesthetic or logo, i can guarantee that they can't even name the specific tribes they're "taking inspiration" from because 9 times out of 10, they're using a bastardized ver. of that item and/or see all Native American culture as monolith.
and to explain farther on why talking about culture appropriation of Native culture is because most of these idols have big platforms, especially within south korea.
whether these idols had good intentions or not; it really doesn't matter. why? because when their audience who also doesn't know much about Native culture, when they see their favourite idols dressing up in Native costumes and aesthetics, it will cause a domino effect.
not only do these idols who use Native culture as an aesthetic influence their audience, it also potentially encourages OTHER idols to assume it's okay for them to do the same also.
but this is not only dressing up as Natives, but also using bastardized sacred items is a problem. let's take the dream catcher for example: they're sold at dollar stores all around the world and everyone has a small idea of what they're used for, right?
however, real dream catchers originated from the Ojibwe tribe and they are as traditional medicine (NOT decoration) but they only work if they're made and blessed by an Ojibwe person.
not to mention of Natives were banned and even KILLED if they practiced using traditional medicine such as dream catchers, as recent as he 70s. this is a huge reason why we're so protective of our culture, because our GRANDPARENTS were stripped of their own cultures.
if idols continue to use a pan-indian idea of what they think Native culture is in their aesthetic and use pan-indian Native costumes for whatever reason, it just continues the cycle of ignorance and enforces harmful stereotypes, intentionally or not...
while i'm here, help a struggling Indigenous college student w $200 worth of overdue bills. my anaana is the only one with an income in my family right now and her pay is cut in half due to less hours bc of covid, so paying bills and rent has been tough :/ http://paypal.me/oddgoth
i would like to note one more thing about dream catchers: i'm aware of other Native American tribes that aren't Ojibwe, making/selling dream catchers to tourists; i'm not in position to say whether they're allowed to or not, i just know that's a product of mutual culture-trade.
and it's much better than buying factory made dream catchers.
