Cultural appropriation is a seriously hot-button topic. It ranges from the aggressively entitled stance of, “I can do whatever I want!” to the perpetually angry approach of “everything is cultural appropriation!”. Of course, the former is a much larger portion of the debate, and the latter is almost always a huge straw-man argument that few…
Category: Representation of natives
The “that isn’t traditional” meme.
Dude. Say it with me. Traditions aren’t technology-dependent. I feel like I’ve said this so often, it should be indelibly emblazoned on the mind of every person who has ever lived, but the sad fact of my limited vocal reach requires me to repeat myself, and really it’s okay. I like exploring this concept. What…
Questioning assumptions, Sawyer did it, will you?
I’ve been reading a lot of Robert J. Sawyer lately, because as pointed out by Adam Shaftoe and Matt Moore in the fall 2011 On Spec, he’s a Canadian Sci-Fi author who is surprisingly optimistic in his writing, in an age where so much science fiction is dystopian and disaster-themed. Also, I really get a…
No justice, no peace.
I hope everyone had a holiday and managed to enjoy it…I used to think that people complaining about putting on weight over the holidays was an exaggeration, but that was back when my metabolism allowed me to gorge myself on pretty much anything with no repercussions! For some reason however, the fact that there is…
Building relationships requires education.
When it comes to the many challenges that aboriginal peoples face here in Canada, I find I have to strike a balance between identifying those problems and trying to come up with solutions for them. Spending too much time on either of those things and I get mixed up, ungrounded. The one is too depressing…