Cultural Appropriation

High fashion magazines and runway shows are often credited with being on the forefront of fashion, creating trends and styles that will eventually be adopted and modified to be consumed by the populace in form of everyday wear (Tazia 2015). Much of the inspiration and background for many of these trends are not always new. The absorption of minority culture by the general public is nothing new to marginalized groups; especially in western countries (Holloway 2016). The idea of an aspect of your culture or religion that has existed for years being reintroduced as new and trendy, without accreditation to its roots and possible spiritual or cultural context is not lost on those impacted. “Cultural appropriation occurs when dominant groups take

What’s important to recognize from this definition is that through the adoption of these cultural elements and by rebranding them as something new and hip, dominant groups are not subjected to the negative association, oppression and stigmatism that others would be faced with (Tazia 2015).

Throughout western history the actions, beliefs and cultural dress of Indigenous peoples and those of African, Latin and Asian descent were regarded as primitive and ultimately beneath that of the dominant, white society (Franklin 2010). With proclaimed intentions of bettering and assimilating these ethnic and cultural groups into modern society, individuals were stripped of their cultural identity. An example of this assimilation reform in Canadian history is clearly identified in the creation of residential schools; where children were removed from their families and placed in Christian schools throughout Canada where the use of their native language as well as any indicators of their Indigenous roots were disallowed and resulted in severe punishment from

Traditionally worn as a signature of bravery and courage by native warriors, each feather has a meaning that is earned and respected however, with the appropriation of this aspect of their culture it stripped those who had worked so hard to honour their ancestors and history of the associated respect in pride in oneself (Komianou