James Cameron avatar folly

CW: suicide ideation, physical, emotional, mental, sexual abuse. Someone asked me about James Cameron and his controversial statements about Lakota and the new Avatar movie. Up until then, I had re-posted some things, but hadn’t said anything yet. I hadn’t planned to until things settled in the apartment, but that could be months; see last … Read more

Depp Sauvage: the scent of appropriation

On August 30th, Dior tweeted about the newest version of a long standing scent titled, “Sauvage”. In the ten second clip, a Native fancy dancer danced in slow motion while Johnny Depp played guitar. The backlash was immediate and spread quickly through Native Twitter and beyond. There are some very big issues involved with this … Read more

White Clay Wendy mock dances at 2019 DMPW

Between Facebook and Twitter, there were plenty of video snippets shared of a white woman who had taken someone’s eagle feather bustle, slung it over her shoulders and danced Costner style with it. Just a PSA: don’t do what this lady did pic.twitter.com/v1kodaKw1r — Kayak (@Ms_Yellowhorse) March 24, 2019 While it’s obviously wrong to take … Read more

Mikkkaela Br’erPaws: a failed pretendian who’s never been to the Rez (probably)

Image from Twitter account @MikaelaPaw On March 16th, a tweet from the account Turning Point USA made a bold claim that ‘if you want to see an example of failed socialism, visit an Indian reservation’. It included a video tagging the account @/MikaelaPaw. It also included a truncated video of Russel Means, a well known … Read more

A problem with VAMPS

Originally appeared in tumblr, aliw117, 2016. Artist photo taken from their official Facebook Page. For me, it was a shock and sheer disappointment when I saw the extent of VAMPS’s cultural appropriation and misrepresentation of Native Americans. VAMPS has great music. They’ve collaborated with Apocalyptica and opened with them for the SIXX A.M. tour in … Read more

Tattoos, artists and ink

For all the times that I’ve seen offensive tattoos with Native-esque symbols or items, there has always been one thing clear — there are at least two people at fault for the offense. The person getting the disrespectful image, and the tattoo artist who inked it on them. Some time ago, I took the time … Read more

Rachel Lorin officially appropriating part one

If there’s one thing that Indigenous people can count on from a number of non-Natives it’s cultural appropriation. Despite countless examples of how offensive such a practice is, there are still those who disregard that respect and do it anyway. The average person can often fly under the radar anywhere else online, but when it … Read more