Senate Indigenous (Native American) Peoples - General Discussion

Love And Blood Quantum : Code Switch : NPR

"If you're Native American, there's a good chance that you've thought a lot about blood quantum — a highly controversial measurement of the amount of "Indian blood" you have. It can affect your identity, your relationships and whether or not you — or your children — may become a citizen of your tribe.

Today on the show, we're revisiting one of our favorite stories from 2018, when reporter Kat Chow spoke to two families grappling with where to live, how to identify, and how those identities might get passed down to their children."

 

An Indigenous chef is putting Native American food on the menu in Oakland : NPR

 

the third bullet seems to be about appropriate uses of the Haka Ke Mate. If so, not surprising as it seems to have become popular and ripe for cultural appropriation.

 

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It's tricky because it seems most Maori love the haka being used for the All Blacks (the national rugby team). But maybe that's just the voices I've heard? I dunno.

 

From what I understand, the FTA provision is about looking into ways to have the rights Ngāti Toa has over Ka Mate in New Zealand recognised in the UK as well. An agreement is already in place with the New Zealand Rugby Union over its use.

Here's an explanation of the Haka Ka Mate Attribution Act 2014, and a 2019 article arguing for more protections overseas that I found informative.

And the origin of Ka Mate.

(Frankly I know very little about this issue as well, and am unsure now if it was worth me posting about originally, but I have learnt marginally more than I knew previously.)

 

Huh so yeah the All Blacks and the Maori have an agreement of mutual respect. Very interesting.

I hate to kinda tread into these waters, but I know the Kansas City Chiefs have tried to do a similar thing with their ceremonial drum. Before the game last week, as is done every November, the drum was blessed by Native American singers from the Omaha tribe with a chant and drumming. A member of the Kickapoo tribe locally also gave a verbal blessing.

So I know they're trying to do something like the Seminoles have done. The difficulty is the term Chief and the notion of war drums are not singular to a specific tribe. So having a couple tribes' blessing doesn't stop others from being offended. It's tricky to me.

Personally I don't do the Tomahawk chop anymore. But I don't really have a problem with the name or with Native Americans who want to give their blessing to the field or drum.. that's sorta their business. But as a totally white person, it's also my business not to immitate them in a way that could be perceived as mocking.

 

I think that, as a general rule, it's not a good idea to appropriate-- for a billion-dollar business, no less-- the culture of a people one's own culture exterminated and continues to persecute. There's no getting around the genocide and land theft thing.

 

So should the All Blacks stop doing the haka?

Edit: I mean this genuinely as a question.

 

I dunno. I am not as familiar with Maori history. Maybe the current dynamic is different in NZ, though I'm skeptical. Anything in the US absolutely should stop. Perhaps the issue can be revisited when the condition of indigenous people isn't so dire.

 

I'm personally for the team being rethemed to Fire Chiefs personally. The colors can even stay. If a name change comes, our mascot is KC Wolf so I'm for the KC Wolves.

 

I believe it is solely up to the Maori people to decide whether the use of the Haka by the All Blacks team is appropriate or not. No one else (especially not people who don't even live in NZ) should get a say in whether it's appropriate or not.

 

Put simply yes.

 

Why?

 

KUOW - Northwest glaciers are melting. What that means to Indigenous ‘salmon people’

 

Native Writers Power Rutherford Falls, Reservation Dogs : Consider This from NPR : NPR

 

Ngāti Toa tells anti-vaccination protesters to stop using its haka

Spoiler: Translations

tupuna - ancestor/s
iwi - tribe
taonga - possessions, treasured possessions
whānau - family, extended family
rohe - region

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Just to be clear, this was just me asking for elaboration, not necessarily saying I disagree.

 

We've had this exact debate on the forums before, some years ago. Not about this one aspect of it, but as an overall practice.

I agree that it's primarily up to the cultural inheritors of a practice to dictate how it is or is not perpetuated or changed. But I guess I'd make a couple points. Firstly, there's a difference between an official body or communal organization offering assent for its outside adaptation--especially as some kind of for-profit marketing venture--and everyone affected actually being comfortable with it. I think as outsiders, the choice of whether to imitate should be guided by the later, not the former. In other words, a few people telling you know is potentially more important than finding one person to tell you yes.

Secondly, I think we have to recognize that even when done "respectfully" we're very much changing context and meaning. The primary display in a sports game is about dominance and aggression. While it's true that the original meaning also encompassed some of these points, they were not limited to them. There was more nuance and expression of other values in that society, but are lost when it just becomes "big strong sportsman dance." Third, I think you have to consider the second-order impacts. Even one group handles something respectfully, it might create a zone of permissiveness wherein many others do not, and there is net harm.

I appreciate these are complex questions. Based on the experiences I am most familiar with, which are both my personal ones as a minority in the US, and what I have learned of the First Nations experience in the US, I would be most comfortable stopping this, as I said years ago.

 

Native Americans without clean drinking water get help from infrastructure bill : NPR