Indigenous Fashion Week Toronto panel talks cultural appropriation
Earlier this month, some of the world's top Indigenous fashion designers shared their collections at the inaugural Indigenous Fashion Week Toronto.
In addition to fashion shows, there were talks held throughout the week, including one called Cultural (In)Appropriation, which was recorded at the Studio Theatre, Harbourfront Centre, Toronto.
The panel featured CBC columnist Jesse Wente, Cree and Jewish filmmaker and artist Ariel Smith, and fashion and trademark lawyer Anjli Patel. It was hosted by Ojibway PhD student Riley Kucheran, whose research at Ryerson and York University looks at the role clothing plays in colonization.
"The topic, cultural (in)appropriation, is a topic that hits home for Indigenous people," said Kucheran.
"It's an issue that's been difficult to challenge legally, copyright is a bit grey, and borrowing inspiration seems to be at the heart of the Western fashion industry."
Jesse Wente said the issue of cultural appropriation must not be separated from the history of Indigenous people in Canada.
"When we talk about cultural appropriation here on Turtle Island … I think one of the key things that's often left out —especially when it comes to Indigenous peoples here — is that this was the law of the land," he said.
In 1884, Canada passed the potlatch ban, which banned First Nation ceremonies, and the government took many sacred items from communities.
"[It] outlawed basically our storytelling, the ceremonies which were intrinsic of how we tell stories, and it allowed the theft of [our] culture," said Wente.
"This is largely left out of conversations around cultural appropriation — it's usually treated as an intellectual idea, or an issue of cultural exchange."
And the problem, as lawyer Anjli Patel pointed out, is that fashion is often left out of definitions of intellectual and cultural property.
"When I researched the definition of cultural property, many definitions that I researched didn't directly reference fashion," she said.
"We know this gets to the heart of it — that fashion isn't considered a cultural history."
Left out of the fashion industry
Because Indigenous people were left out of practicing their culture, they were also excluded from adding their voice to fashion trends.
"While our culture was being outlawed, fashion was taking off," said moderator Riley Kucheran.
"Post 1945, the fashion industry … really start[ed] to take off … simultaneously we're not allowed to practice our culture, and these mainly European designers [were] beginning to scour the world."
Kucheran gives the example of Cherokee designer Lloyd Kiva New, who began designing in the 1950s, and whose designs were being copied by successful fashion houses.
A few decades later there was a second wave of cultural appropriation in fashion, when "Oriental" designs became popular during the 1960s and 1970s, Patel said.
"Designers literally looked all over the world, and by virtue of trade routes opening and fabrics and textiles were coming to Europe — that was a jumping board for many European designers," said Patel.
Can I wear moccasins?
An question that often comes up in discussions around issues of cultural appropriation in fashion is who is allowed to wear Indigenous designs?
"I have had non-Indigenous people ask, 'Is it okay if I wear these earrings?'," said Ariel Smith.
"And I just always say, 'Well would you feel comfortable wearing them in front of a bunch of Native people? If you feel uncomfortable, then maybe you shouldn't wear them.'"
As Wente pointed out, it is only when someone wears an Indigenous designs and claims it as their own, that it becomes an issue of cultural appropriation.