Cultural Appropriation and Totems
One of our concerns with this movement was about cultural appropriation. The concept of Totems is arose in the field of anthropology and with the study of First Nation peoples by the developed west, and is bound up with Colonialism and exploitation. There is a real risk of straying into very difficult cultural battlegrounds and that is the last thing we would want as an outcome from this movement.
However, there is a great difference between consuming and devaluing another culture due to an unfair power differential versus learning from the great diversity and history of human cultures. Totems are about learning, making connections, and transforming systems. Keeping great ideas alive and relevant through respectful transformation and exchange is a wonderful outcome.
To avoid unintentional appropriation, we propose the following checklist against your Totem design:
1) Be highly aware and sensitive: There is no excuse in this age of information to be ignorant of context. Research and Learn. Knowledge is a responsibility.
2) Acknowledge any inspiration and treat it with the utmost respect. Be very clear on what inspires you about the source material. Be highly aware of the original cultural context, the importance to that culture. Learn, be inspired, but do not steal. Imagine giving a member of this inspirational culture a tour of your totem, and how you would explain it to them. Would they be proud or would you be embarrassed? If your totem is in an area with a First Nation community, engage with them in the project if it is appropriate.
3) Acknowledge that First Nation cultures had highly sophisticated cultures to protect and preserve the nature that sustained them. Thank them for this knowledge and for the inspiration to transform contemporary consumer culture into a custodial one with sophisticated practices to preserve and sustain nature. Compare their millennia-long record of careful custody with the recent centuries of destruction and loss, and figure out a way we can return to such a productive and beautiful situation.
4) Do not quote, sample or replicate imagery or symbols that are not your own: The totems project must find new representations for concepts we care deeply about through the requirements of our target species, and our local ecosystems. There is endless inspiration in your own local focus - be creative. You cannot borrow important cultural symbols from another culture without being disrespectful and guilty of appropriation.
5) Do research common features across different cultures. This exercise builds knowledge of our common cultural heritage, and these common features can be the basis to develop new symbols that learn from our diverse human heritage. We are not reinventing the wheel, we are making a new wheel that learns from the past, but addresses our current needs.
6) After working on your Totem, go back and admire again how beautiful and skilful First Nation art is, powerful objects created through the creativity and passion of the human spirit. Working on a similar project always brings fresh appreciation of past achievements. Thank them for their inspiration and work incredibly hard to live up to this heritage.
After finishing a draft of your design, complete the Cultural Appropriation checklist, and ask others for their honest opinion. Listen to your own heart, if you have a sinking feeling it is not right, trust the feeling! Take any negative feedback as a challenge to learn more, understand better, and unleash your own creativity and expression. Design is hard, but all the more rewarding when you get it right.