Does this make it okay?

[cerridwen]

So I've come across an artist called Rachel Rice. She makes and sells dreamcatchers. I found this statement in the description on her etsy shop: https://www.etsy.com/listing/170567676/sacred-geometry-dreamcatcher-with-flora

About my "Dream Catchers"...

Perhaps they should be called "dream givers" ~ they are not traditional Native American craft, though I learned to make them at camp growing up as a little girl in Oklahoma. I appreciate concerns about cultural appropriation and toward that end I emphasize these are aesthetic, not religious objects. They re-interpret a theme found all over the world (the decorated circle) and are a commentary on the future. That is why i use over 75% salvaged and recycled materials in my work, and why I donate a portion of all sales of them to http://nayapdx.org, the Native American Youth & Family Center of Portland, Oregon.

She then goes on to say:

About me...

I create “Cosmic American” art and accessories inspired by a blend of the natural world, indigenous cultures, mysticism, camp crafts, and rock and roll culture. I write songs about love and trees and women. I play guitar and harmonica, adore singing harmony, and believe in transformation.

So does donating money to the culture from which you are 'borrowing' from make it okay to 'borrow' from them?

What are your thoughts on this?

[Defend the Sacred]

I can't imagine NAYA sees much money from her Etsy store. And at what price a few donated bucks? She's misrepresenting culture, using the usual "universal" nuage excuses we've heard 10,000 times before, but still appropriating and profiting off appropriation. Some of what she's selling shouldn't be sold. As for the "Native-themed" work that is more commercial/public: For every ignorant person who buys something fake from her, an actual Native artist loses a sale.

Here she is selling an image of burned sweetgrass and calling it "Shamanic." This stuff murders culture. https://www.etsy.com/listing/202223775/shamanic-pyramid-white-on-black?ref=shop_home_active_4

She is participating in the misrepresentation and commercialization of Native cultures. She is participating in cultural genocide.

[Defend the Sacred]

The ad for her store:



Ick.

[cerridwen]

Thanks for the feedback. This artist, and many others that she is linked to, I was intrigued by for many months until I started questioning their practices and where they get their 'inspiration' from. Then I found this site and my eyes have been well and truly opened.