◗ For their 2016 advertisement campaign, an Italian fashion house featured models standing in the Kenyan desert landscape and in a Maasai tribal village wearing dresses elaborately beaded in patterns that read tribal and African.
◗ On home décor websites, one increasingly sees Kuba cloth inspired patterns on rugs and pillows.
◗ Shibori patterned, indigo-dyed fabric is used for decorative throw pillows, bed coverings, and table ware.
◗ A London-based fashion house presents a line of woman’s clothing based on Native American designs, while an American-based dinnerware company sells Native American-inspired patterns.
Each and every instance mentioned above does indeed constitute some kind of appropriation of cultural material, as no further contextual information is provided. No homage is paid to the people, places, materials, religions, or designs that are affiliated with them. The human essence has been stripped away, and hence its part in the design equation goes missing. So, too, has any effort to reinterpret and adapt the design instead of just copying it.
The issue of cultural appropriation is important and complex, and no two issues are alike, but it is an issue worth trying to understand and respectfully address. Consider the following four steps as you look for global inspiration,
1. Ask about the source material: Who made it,
what is it made of, what purpose did it serve, what is compelling about it, and why?
2. if your inspiration material is affiliated with something sacred, seek out the advice of a cultural expert before proceeding.
3. Respect the source material: Do not copy it, but instead figure out how to adapt it. Change the pattern scale and color, use a vastly different material, and/or apply the design to a different medium. provide a link on your website from which your consumer can learn more about the culture that inspired the product.
4. Credit the source of your inspiration: Tell a story about the inspiration material, and place it in the context of the culture that made it. Explain what inspired you, what, materials were used and why. Describe what the object was used for and what the design might reference. For example, instead of simply saying a design is inspired by a Kuba cloth, explain that the Kuba are actually a people who live in the Democcratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and that the fiber they use to make Kuba cloths come from spinning and weaving the fibers of raffia palm leaves. Again, provide a link on your website from which your consumer can learn more about the culture that inspired the product.
5. Engage with the maker of the original material: Ask how a mutually beneficial partnership can be formed, how you can help advance an artist's career, how you can assist a culture or institution by contributing a percentage of sales of your product in support, and how you can provide your customer a link to information about the source material or culture.
If you appreciate a person, object, or culture, you should never appropriate it. You should respect them. That’s accomplished by engaging in a creative dialogue and learning about what is important to someone or about something and why.
With a more complete understanding of
culture and context, you can create something
unique, beautiful, and respectful. And you will become a full participant of the human community—by standing alongside your fellow human beings, rather than positioning yourself above or outside them.
By Contrast
To see one such an approach at work, consider the licensing program at the Museum of New
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