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Originally Posted by Little Creek77
The biggest threat to the 1st Nations are the bullies. Those who tell us what we should do, and what stories and ceremonies are authentic and which ones are not. I never seen a "New Ager" do this. They don't tell us what to do. But I am seeing this in the propaganda you posted, and I do see this way to much on the NAFPS website. The propaganda you posted is telling me what I should do, and provokes fear, and what I should fear.
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Thank you
Little Creek77 for being here - on this thread - to give voice to that other concern, the bullies. This subject matter makes me soooo uncomfortable – feeling all sick and twisted like a worm in a hook, so I hope this problem can be untangled.
What
magdna wrote – I so get it, that is the same or similar Indigenous story and the depth of pain all over the world (what I can gather) and something ‘us whities’ imo. should be mindful of in ‘our attitude of entitlement’ to be informed about Aboriginal cultures/spirituality (of which attitude ‘we’ then of course also expect praise and a medal from the Aboriginals).
I don’t know Sedona from a bar of soap nor anything about the ‘New Age Three Ring Circus’ allegedly happening there, but I do read the NDN jokes:
“A REAL Shaman is somebody, who has had at least 2 books published in Sedona” (or something like that).
High 5s all round and lots of lols.
This becomes very hurtful over time.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plastic_shaman
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The term "plastic shaman" originated among Native American and First Nations activists and is most often applied to people fraudulently posing as Native American traditional healers
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So popular has that buzz-word become, that I feel like saying – hang on a minute, don’t you realize that by word-association you are creating stereotypes and putting down
real Indigenous peoples who have suffered the same or similar fates – but identify themselves with ‘Shamanism’ as their/our spiritual culture.
And it doesn’t end there.
It is almost as if – when you are an Euro and a ‘whitey’ – but if you adopt the anti-cultural-appropriation-group-think-script, you too can then like become an ‘honorary injun’ by association.
And hell hath no hatred greater than an anti-cultural-appropriation-group-think-script-warrior on a fraud hunt.
If you dare to mention you come from a “Shamanic culture” – you are automatically assumed “plastic” and fair game for target practice.
The positive side of this is that when you are falsely accused, it makes you dig deeper into your own culture and history.
An example of this was the other day when I got together with an Oz-Aboriginal friend of mine, who had by an ‘anti-cultural-appropriation bully’ been accused of using
their language group’s words as his own.
So my friend had gone into a ‘soul search’ looking back and back in history, when you did do trade, not only with the nearby groups (with whom you do have word commonality) but distant groups as well and how you got (well, women usually) ‘promised’ to those distant trading partners. Besides, when people from far and wide were herded into the same Missions and speaking Aboriginal language became ‘black crime’ – well, people most likely still talked in lingo with each other in secrecy, but now some language group words got mixed up.
I don’t know how or even if this relates to Amerind situation, but my friend painting a picture of the trade gave me content and put into context
our trading partners from Far East Siberia as well - these people:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ymyyakhtakh_culture
So yes-yes-yes, we have word commonality as well and a genetic legacy (they have got our female line(s) and we have got a couple of theirs, I am 3% Chukchi-Koryak) plus the cultural influence we have hanged and hanged onto by the skin of our teeth.
Of course this doesn’t give me the right to appropriate their culture or play-act their identity, but of that cultural exchange/influence I am proud of (plus I do have more recent ancestry from around there).
But why oh why are Indigenous ‘brothers’ now attacking each other like this and how does this help to preserve the spiritual culture?