busyAustralian Foods:
http://fooddownunder.com/#4
http://www.recipezaar.com/recipes.php?q=australia
http://www.cultureandrecreation.gov.au/articles/foodanddrink/
Culture & Spirituality:
http://www.princetonol.com/groups/iad/lessons/middle/austral.htm
http://www.crystalinks.com/ayersrock.html
http://www.crystalinks.com/dreamtime.html
Art:
http://www.jintaart.com.au/iconography/iconhmpg.htm
http://aboriginalart.com.au/gallery/iconography.html
http://www.cooinda-gallery.com.au/
http://aboriginalart.com.au/gallery/gallery_intro.html
Mythology:
http://www.mythencyclopedia.com/Ar-Be/Australian-Mythology.html
http://www.godchecker.com/pantheon/australian-mythology.php
http://www.mccsc.edu/~kmcglaun/mythology/australia.htm
http://australianmuseum.net.au/Stories-of-the-Dreaming
I'm working on an alternate history storyline in which the natives of Australia are anthropomorphic canids (variously called "Tingo" or "dogsbodies") who wind up enslaved by Europeans and Americans. To counterbalance the fact that this storyworld has no human Australians, I'm putting some extra energy into promoting Australian culture as we know it in our world.
My answer to cultural misappropriation is cultural investment; I figure that what I get out of a culture should be balanced by what I put into it. I'm also trying to spread this idea to other creative folks in hopes that we can find a sane and decent way to write/paint/etc. about the full diversity of human cultures so it's not all white-bread stuff ... without starting a brawl in the process and without contributing to the already scandalous amount of racism in the world.
July 31 2009, 00:57:28 UTC 11 years ago
More than that...I understand the concept of karmic balance, but I don't believe that knowing cultural misappropriation can be canceled out by an equal and opposite act, like parts of an equation. Especially when there's such a historical power differential between you and the culture you're mining from.
I suppose the root of my misgivings arises from the fact that all of these fascinating cultural bits are going to a nonhuman race who, no matter how you personally identify with them, are at some level going to be Other for most people. More, the race is taking the place of the humans who created that culture, the humans who've historically been ignored as less-than-people, and whether you mean to or not it looks like you're participating in that erasure even as you're pointing it out in the storyverse.
< / climbs off soapbox>
Um. That got long. If anything I said came across as a personal attack, I'm going to apologize in advance.