I have been asking myself a question that I can’t find an answer to. Where does cultural appropriation stop?
I have been practicing yoga for a while. The instructor–a Western millenial–uses Sanskrit words to describe postures and bbereathing, and ends every session with “Namaste.” I have been listening to elders speak about indigenous practices like smudging and drumming to connect with the energy of the collective. If I now adopt those practices as my own–yoga, meditation, earth medicine–have I appropriated them?
I am a colonized Westerner. I am not sure how to honour the heritage of the practices within the culture without feeling like a Westerner who takes everything for their own and it becomes a pale reflection of the original–think power yoga and the dangerous sweat lodge practices of years ago.
One elder offered help:
because these people [Westerners] were not created here. By proxy we are the ones with our fires and they need to come to us with that honour and respect and humility to be able to heal and to connect to their ancestors. And they always need to be told that you come from a place that is your homeland. To tell them consistently, the white people that come to our ceremonies, we are happy to share our sacred fire with you because at this fire is the essence of life, of who the Creator is. If you make your offerings, you make your prayers, have your fast, your vision quest, or whatever, we’ll help you with that, but you’ve gotta do your work to find out who is the Creator and what does the Creator want you to do in your life. We’ll help you with it but in that journey of your healing, you need to go back to your homelands, walk in the place of your ancestors, and that will change you forever. Because that is where you belong and we are sharing this land with you, and we also have a duty to share with you how to respect and honour these homelands, and you need to live with those natural laws and those spiritual laws that govern Turtle Island [North America]. You come here and we’re not interested in your passport, we’re interested in if you will adhere to these natural laws and spiritual laws.1
It seems that we can come together and learn from each other; and we need to respect where each has come from. In my heart, I hope that I am respecting the essence of the practice will making it part of my heritage that my grandchildren will honour.
- https://jabsc.org/index.php/jabsc/article/view/577