Module 3: Creation and Curation
Cultural Misappropriation
Defining the principles of misappropriation
Cultural misappropriation is “the use of a people’s traditional dress, music, cuisine, knowledge, and other aspects of their culture, without their approval, by members of a different culture.” It is the act of taking elements from one culture and using them in another culture without proper acknowledgement, respect, or understanding.
Digitized cultural misappropriation refers to the use of digital media to appropriate cultural elements. This can include the use of images, music, or other cultural artifacts without permission or proper attribution.
Learner notes
Cultural misappropriation can also be defined as the unethical use of taking and using intellectual property, cultural knowledge, cultural expression, artifacts, traditional medicines, and more from another culture that is not your own. These actions are most likely harmful to the peoples or communities being exploited.
Learner notes
Source and recommended reading: Think Before You Appropriate (sfu.ca) [PDF]
How, then, can we honour Indigenous cultures without misappropriation?
Brainstorm examples of misappropriation.
Record your responses in your Toolkit.
Cultural misappropriation examples
Let’s look at some examples in detail.
Storytelling conference
“Some years ago, Elders told stories at a conference; they had a storytelling conference. The people who brought this gathering together took those stories which were told…and the editor, a non-Indigenous person, then put this collection together, for which a copyright was made to her. So Indigenous peoples are asking, ‘If I give you this [story], you take it and say: this is my property, when it’s my story. The story doesn’t come because I’m an individual. It comes because I’m in a particular culture, in a particular language, in a particular situation that has been collectively acquired and developed through the collectivity’. So it’s a collective effort, it’s a collective issue.”
—Dr. M. Battiste, as quoted in University Library Report of the Ithaka S&R Study on Improving Library Resources and Services for Indigenous Studies Scholars [PDF]
Learner notes
Cowichan sweater
The Cowichan Tribe claimed that their traditional sweater designs were being used without consent or engagement with the Nation by the Hudson’s Bay Company for the Vancouver 2010 Olympics. This example highlighted First Nations issues around intellectual property rights and cultural appropriation. This is just one of many examples of the current limits of legal, artistic, and economic protection for creators of cultural products in Canada.
Learner notes
Inuksuk cairns
Another example of misappropriation is the 2010 Olympic Committee’s selection of the inuksuk as the logo for games. The logo is a stylized inunnguaq (an inuksuk with arms, legs, and a head), which is an important symbol to many Inuit.
Learner notes
The Maliseet First Nation
The Maliseet First Nation lost ma