Appropriation

Collage with Kickapoo Indian Medicine Company ads from the 1800s, a smudge stick and New Age meditation group at the Snoqualmie Moondance festival in 1992. Credit: Deb Berger/Iowa State University Sarah Dees pulls several yellow-tinged booklets out of plastic bags. Flipping through one titled "Life Among the Indians," she points out sections on ceremonies and customs. Toward the back are ads for so-called "Indian remedies,"…

Credit: Unsplash/CC0 Public Domain White sage, which is sacred to a number of Native American tribes in the southwest United States, has been adopted by both some contemporary Pagans and New Age practitioners for purification rites. As Emily McFarlan Miller reported in a recent Religion News Service article, this is resulting in overharvesting and shortages of the plant, making it harder for Native Americans to find enough for…

Image: Courtesy of Hussey-Cotton Films LtdPop artist Roy Lichtenstein’s work is instantly recognizable: the giant, colorful canvases; the Ben-Day dots; the distinctively comic book-inspired images. That last element has caused controversy over the years, as critics point out “inspired” can sure look a lot like “ripped off.” A new documentary digs in.Directed by James L. Hussey—who told io9 he got the idea for his film from a 2014 post on this very website—Whaam! Blam! Roy Lichtenstein and the Art of Appropriation puts it…

Is it possible to cancel cancel culture?Lizzo is trying to — at least the kind of cancel culture that she considers “trendy, misused and misdirected.”“This may be a random time to say this but it’s on my heart.. cancel culture is appropriation,” the Grammy-winning singer tweeted over the weekend. “There was real outrage from truly marginalized people and now it’s become trendy, misused and misdirected,” she continued. “I hope we can phase out of this & focus our outrage on the real problems.”But the “2 Be Loved” and…

Lizzo took a moment on a Sunday morning to share her concerns about cancel culture. “This may be a random time to say this but it’s on my heart.. cancel culture is appropriation,” Lizzo tweeted on Sunday. “There was real outrage from truly marginalized people and now it’s become trendy, misused and misdirected,” she wrote. Lizzo continued: “I hope we can phase out of this & focus our outrage on the real problems.” Just days before, the “About Damn Time” singer had taken to…

James Cameron is famously unperturbed by caring about what anyone else thinks of his work and the way he approaches it, but that doesn’t mean he can’t state the case for Avatar: The Way of Water falling into the camp of cultural celebration, and not appropriation. It’s an accusation that’s been leveled at the blockbuster sequel a couple of times already due to how the Na’vi way of life has liberally lifted and clearly been inspired by various cultures all over our planet, where we do not have blue aliens that stand nine…

James Cameron has made headlines for all the wrong reasons yet again after the co-chair of Indigenous Pride L.A., Yuè Begay, and other Native and Indigenous social media users, called out the director for his newly released project, Avatar: The Way of Water. One of the factors surrounding the backlash stems from Cameron allegedly appropriating the Indigenous culture by using various stories within their history for both Avatar films and having an all-white cast to portray Na’vi…

James Cameron's Avatar: The Way of Water is in theatres, and has already grossed $300 million internationally. Now, director James Cameron is facing allegations for Native American and Indigenous cultural appropriation and a campaign is urging viewers to boycott the sci-fi film. (Also read: Avatar The Way of Water box office day 3 collection: Film zooms past ₹100 crore in India, $435 million worldwide)Like the 2009 film Avatar, the sequel primarily follows on with the story about colonisers taking over land and their…

Lynn Goldsmith’s photo of Prince (left) was used to create a series of 16 silkscreen prints by Andy Warhol.Screenshot: Collection of the Supreme Court of the United StatesIn 1981 the photographer Lynn Goldsmith took a portrait of Prince. He sits alone on a white background, wearing a blank expression with a glint of light in his eyes. In 1984 Andy Warhol used that photo to create art. Warhol altered the image, adjusting the angle of Prince’s face, layering on swaths of color, darkening the edges, and adding hand-drawn…