As most pagans know, it’s impossible to get very far in your practice without encountering the issue of cultural appropriation. It’s rampant in many areas of modern society but is especially prevalent in pagan circles.
Generally, cultural appropriation in the magickal community is the result of traditions being taken, diluted or drained of most of their original meaning, and then spread around the community as something that belongs to everyone.
This is what can make cultural appropriation so hard to avoid. Rituals and traditions reach us that are so far removed from their original cultural and spiritual origins that they look like general neo-pagan practices that are fair game. However, many people in the community are now speaking out and bringing to light specific traditions that are closed and should be practiced only by those who are part of a specific culture.
The first step in avoiding cultural appropriation is to listen to these people. When you’re told something is questionable, do your own research, ask questions, and educate yourself. Pagans LOVE education, so this is really just another way to strengthen your practice!
Doing your own research also helps you separate true cultural appropriation from the loud white people making a fuss over nothing. Some cultures have open traditions that they enjoy sharing with others, so long as it’s done respectfully.
So, that’s really the first step. When you find a ritual or tradition that lights you up, do your research, listen to people from that culture, and act accordingly.
But...What IS Cultural Appropriation?
People literally spend their careers answering this question, so fully answering such a weighty question in a blog post is impossible.
However, I can give a pretty good example of how to identify it—The Nightmare Before Christmas. (If you haven’t seen it, go watch it and come back. I’ll wait.)
In this movie, Jack Skellington, the Pumpkin King of Halloween Town, stumbles through a doorway out of his own town full of spooks, spectres, and all things creepy into a forest full of doorways. Each door represents a different holiday, but the one that catches Jack’s eye happens to be the one to Christmas Town.
Jack explores Christmas Town with unchecked delight, literally singing with joy about the beautiful lights, glittering snow, and wide array of beautiful gifts, toys, and candy. So far, there’s no problem! He’s enjoying himself and is respectfully observing something new and different outside of his culture.
Jack ends up taking sacks full of objects from Christmas Town back home to inspect. He examines each one, learning as much as he can from observation alone.
This, I would say, is where his actions start to go off the rails. There’s nothing wrong with educating himself about this new culture he’s discovered, but the way he’s doing it is very disrespectful. He stole artifacts from the culture to inspect on his own, rather than introducing himself to the indigenous people and asking them about their traditions. As a result, he makes a bunch of incorrect assumptions about Christmas and erroneously believes he knows enough to practice Christmas himself.
The rest of the movie proves just how terribly wrong this is. He still doesn’t understand Christmas, as illustrated by the cruel tricks and horrors he gives to children instead of presents. What’s more, he actively removes the leader of Christmas Town and inserts himself in Santa’s role. This places Santa in physical danger and immediately starts to erase all of the layers and nuances of Christmas culture because it’s being led by someone who isn’t part of that culture.
What’s especially frustrating is that Santa probably would have been delighted if Jack had approached him with curiosity and respect and asked if he could, perhaps, observe Christmas traditions to learn more. This may have led to a cultural exchange that could have benefitted both towns.
On the other hand, maybe Santa would have kindly (because it’s Santa, he’s kind by nature) said no, that their culture wasn’t open to observation. In this case, Jack may have been sad, but he and his people wouldn’t have suffered for not knowing about Christmas.
Either way, the whole disaster could have been avoided if Jack had simply asked instead of taking.
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What To Do Instead!
Honestly, this is the part I’m most excited about. While it’s widely accepted that cultural appropriation is damaging and wrong, it’s difficult to find resources for what to do instead.
For instance, smudging with sage is a very hot-button issue right now. This is an example of a tradition that seems mainstream, but was taken from an indigenous group, diluted, and practiced incorrectly by thousands of people.
I’ve heard some First Nation sources say it’s okay to smudge, as long as you grow the sage yourself or purchase it from an indigenous source. Other First Nation folx are asking non-native people to stop smudging all together because so few of us know how to do it properly.
Personally, I’ve decided to stop smudging all together. I realized it’s a tradition I don’t fully understand, and I want to support the First Nation community by no longer purchasing sage from non-native sources.
Fortunately, there’s a wide array of cleansing methods available to me through my own lineage!
My family background is mainly Scandanavian and Celtic. I have ancestors from Germany, the Netherlands, Scotland, and Wales. Both the Teutonic and Celtic peoples used various forms of cleansing or sanctifying a space with smoke. They also used water, herbs, specific words and spells, music, and movement to clear themselves and their homes of harmful energy and chase away bad spirits.
I’m excited about diving deeper into my own lineage and learning about how my ancestors practiced their spirituality. I already feel more connected to the traditions I’ve researched, likely because they’re part of my heritage.
This is the best advice I can give to anyone wishing to avoid cultural appropriation in their practice—explore your own history first.
The second piece of advice? Practice completely and respectfully, always. Just because your ancestors practiced saining doesn’t mean it’s okay to pick and choose which parts of the tradition you want to practice. If you want to learn how to sain, the best thing to do is research it as completely as you can, speak to those who practice this tradition today, and then move forward with respect both for the tradition and your ancestors.
Additionally, exploring your heritage doesn’t give you carte blanche to mine rituals from any culture you find there. For instance, my mother tells me that my great-great-great-grandmother was likely First Nation. The story goes that, when my mother was small, her grandmother showed my mother and her siblings a photo of a Native American woman and told them that woman was my great-grandmother’s grandmother.
After my great-grandmother passed away, my mother and her siblings looked for the photo, but couldn’t find it. My mother suspects her grandmother may have discarded the photo because my great-grandmother (born in the early 1900s) would have considered it shameful to have First Nation lineage.
Does this story mean I have a right to First Nation traditions? Absolutely not. The genetic connection is tenuous at best, and there’s no cultural connection at all. I don’t have the understanding that comes from growing up within a culture, and I never will.
What’s more—I don’t need to.
Our world is unbelievably rich in spiritual energy, open traditions, ancestral ritual, and inherited culture. If we do what witches do best and deeply examine ourselves and our practices, we’ll find deep wells of traditions that can help us craft our practices without infringing on others’.
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