Today, a student I tutor came in with a paper about cultural appropriation in film; I won’t go into what the student said, but it got me thinking.
I’ve seen lots of articles, blog posts and advice about writing from the viewpoint of a culture that is not the author’s own; it’s kind of a touchy topic, and understandably so. Here’s one take on the matter, and here’s another and yet another.
So, here’s my take.
There are times when the use of elements from another’s culture is simply, blatantly wrong; the use of various Native American symbology by non-Native opportunists in order to sell “spiritual enlightenment” for huge profits (none of which usually makes its way into the hands of the people from whom the opportunists are stealing) comes to mind.
But when am I commiting cultural appropriation as a writer?
I write fantasy. Contemporary fantasy, yes, but fantasy all the same, and I think that it’s in the speculative fiction genres that cultural appropriation is the most problematic. I use various elements from various cultures to construct the mythos of the world my characters walk through. As someone of very, very Irish descent, I have long been fascinated by Irish and Celtic stories and faith; when I first began to write seriously, it was from this that I drew most of my fiction’s symbology. These symbols came from my heritage, from my understanding of the culture of my ancestors.
But then I started expanding my horizons; I became extremely interested in Native American faith and spiritual practice, and created a character based on a Navajo spiritual figure.
When I submitted the story to an online group for critique, I was lambasted.
It wasn’t that I’d drawn the character inaccurately; it was that I, a white woman, drew the character at all. Truthfully, nobody in that particular group was of Native descent; they couldn’t say whether or not the character was done accurately or even respectfully, because they didn’t know.
I understand this. There are a lot of people out there for whom the figure that I’d appropriated is a spiritual figure, not just a folktale out of the distant past. The act of using this figure in fiction can very easily be seen as disrespectful. I certainly didn’t intend any disrespect when I wrote the story, but I trashed it after that.
In retrospect, the act of writing that story was disrespectful. I’d approached a holy figure in a way that made him a fantasy, something not true.
I have made use of elements of Native culture in stories since then; some of the stories are more successful than others. But I’m extremely careful now. I research. A lot. I cannot stress how much I research when I start writing at all about a culture that is not my own. And I try to have empathy. I try to imagine the various ways in which my story could be viewed.
Is it still problematic? Most certainly. I’m a child of the majority culture, a white woman, not visibly different from the majority culture at all. I know that I cannot possibly understand what it is like to live the life of any culture but my own. But not to try, I think, only furthers the problem. If every writer of European descent only writes about the culture of descendents of Europeans, their writing becomes stale, and we begin to write with blinders on. I learn when I write. I may make mistakes, but I will continue to try.
