A festival-goer buys a feathered headdress because it looks good in photos. A fashion label sends a parka down the runway whose design was copied from a garment in an old photograph of an Inuk shaman. A store sells leggings labelled 'tribal print'. None of these people may think of themselves as doing harm, and that is exactly why the topic needs careful reading. Each case raises the same three questions: whose is this, who gave permission, and who benefits? This topic gives you the vocabulary to answer them precisely, the history that explains why the answers matter so much for First Nations, Métis and Inuit peoples, and a set of protocols you can apply to fashion, media and your own writing.
Appropriation and appreciation
Cultural appropriation means taking designs, symbols, stories, sacred objects or practices from a culture that is not your own, without permission, credit or benefit to the people they come from, usually in a setting where the taker's culture holds more power. The power part explains why the issue is sharper for Indigenous peoples in Canada than for most borrowing between cultures. From 1884 the Indian Act banned the potlatch, and later amendments restricted other ceremonies and dances, including appearing in regalia at public events without official permission; the potlatch ban was not removed until 1951. Communities were punished for practices that outsiders can now buy, wear and sell as fashion. Appreciation is engagement that keeps the people in the picture: learning in context, buying from the makers, crediting the nation and the artist, and asking before using anything that is not offered freely.
- Wearing a sacred or earned item as a costume
- A label like 'tribal' or 'Native-inspired' that names no nation
- Profit goes to a company with no connection to the source community
- Copying a family's or nation's design without asking
- Retelling a story that belongs to a family or season, as your own content
- Learning what an item means and who has the right to wear it
- Naming the nation, community and maker
- Buying directly from Indigenous artists and Indigenous-owned businesses
- Collaborating with permission, credit and fair payment
- Citing published stories and sharing oral ones only with permission
Headdresses, fashion and 'Indigenous-inspired' design
- Why the headdress is the classic example. Eagle-feather headdresses belong to specific Plains nations, where they are earned and given in recognition and worn by particular people on particular occasions. Many nations never used them at all, so a headdress worn as a costume both disrespects the nations it belongs to and erases every nation it does not.
- The runway. In 2012, Victoria's Secret apologized and removed a headdress look from its televised fashion show after criticism. In 2015, the Canadian designers behind DSquared2 named a collection with a slur used against Indigenous women and faced wide condemnation.
- Festivals. Several festivals banned headdresses, including Bass Coast in British Columbia in 2014 and Osheaga in Montreal in 2015, after Indigenous people explained what they meant.
- Copied designs. In 2015, the London label KTZ withdrew a sweater copied from the parka of an Inuk shaman photographed in the 1920s, after Salome Awa, a descendant from Nunavut, objected that the family's sacred design had been used without permission.
- Vague labels. 'Aztec', 'tribal' and 'Indigenous-inspired' hide which nation a pattern comes from, which makes it impossible to credit anyone and easy to sell imitations that compete with Indigenous artists.
Who owns stories and images
Much of the confusion about appropriation comes from assuming that anything visible is free to use. Many First Nations, Métis and Inuit communities have protocols that assign rights to particular people. On the Northwest Coast, for example, crests, names, songs and dances belong to specific houses and clans, and the right to use them is affirmed publicly at feasts. Some stories may be told only in certain seasons or only by people who have been given them. A design on a family's clothing can carry the family's history. When an outsider copies these things, the problem is not only offence: it is the same as taking someone's property, along with the authority that goes with it. Remember that protocols differ between nations, so the respectful move is to ask the specific community, not to apply one rule everywhere.
Indigenous intellectual property
| Question | Canadian copyright | Indigenous cultural and intellectual property |
|---|---|---|
| Who owns it? | An individual creator, or whoever buys the rights | Often a family, clan, house, community or nation, with keepers who hold responsibilities |
| How long does it last? | The creator's life plus 70 years, then the public domain | Responsibilities continue across generations; there is no expiry date |
| What is protected? | A specific original work fixed in a form, such as a book or recording | Stories, songs, designs, crests, names, knowledge and ceremony, including oral forms |
| What happens to old material? | Very old works are free for anyone to use | Age does not end the community's rights; older material may be the most significant |
Because copyright fits poorly, communities use other tools. Article 31 of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) affirms the right of Indigenous peoples to maintain, control, protect and develop their cultural heritage, traditional knowledge and traditional cultural expressions, and the intellectual property over them; Canada passed legislation to implement the Declaration in 2021. Trademarks help too: the Igloo Tag, used since 1958 to certify authentic Inuit art, has been held by the Inuit Art Foundation since 2017. Literature has had its own debate. In 2017, the editor of the Writers' Union of Canada's magazine resigned after an editorial in an issue devoted to Indigenous writers suggested there should be a prize for appropriation, prompting a national argument about who gets to tell which stories.
Engaging respectfully
- Whose is it? Name the nation, community, family or artist. If you cannot, you are not ready to use it.
- Is it sacred, ceremonial or earned? Items like eagle feathers, ceremonial regalia and certain songs are not fashion or content at all.
- Was it offered or taken? Things made for sale or shared publicly by the community are offered; a design copied from a photograph is taken.
- Who benefits? Money, credit and attention should flow to the people the work comes from.
- Is the context respected? A pattern on beadwork bought from the artist and worn with care is different from the same pattern printed on party costumes.