wendigo appropriation

The windigo is a Native American spirit belonging to the Algonquian tribes of North America and Canada. <> 0000005554 00000 n (A friend sent this screenshot to me, along with the info, because he knows how much PC-ism pisses me off. Privacy Policy. 3. defence-cultural-appropriation Cultural appropriation is defined by Britannica.com as "When members of a majority group adopt cultural elements of a minority group in an exploitative, disrespectful, or stereotypical way." Cultural appropriation is a growing topic in this country that when it occurs, or is discussed, often creates controversy. No one can try to stake a singular claim to it. As it so happens, I am currently working on a project involving a Wendigo, so this is personal to me. a lot of Natives and people in general don't even like saying the word itself. w*ndigo stuff : r/wendigoon - Reddit 0 Digital Literature Review 1 Stolen Spirits: The Appropriation of the Scan this QR code to download the app now. For more information, please see our Copyright 2022 Facing History & Ourselves. MORTUI VELOCES SUNT! Ojibwe scholar Dr. Brady Santi has developed this guide for teachers who would like to teach students about her communitys unique belief systems with an emphasis on the wendigo as it appears in popular films. Only assholes think thats offensive. l Ca#!LzH{t+8W5 !2*_{)rgx-`]CTXSH($g The latest addition to this lineup of wendigo tales is Scott Cooper and Guillermo del Toros horror film Antlers (2021) in which a Native American character provides some brief exposition before the story centered around a white community contending with the monster begins in earnest. For resources: http://reddit.com/r/SRSDiscussion/wiki/required. And whoever!). hb```b``Ub`e``s`g@ ~+ a1fm{s/K5N9MHd@*2Ey]#B}>x,&ucrnhm:HkN=_B }Wzp.S#WCXi;dRa ,.0H*. Be supportive, this is a place for growth, not hostility. My basic rule is simple: be respectful. Privacy Policy. 0000015547 00000 n And I accept that the Wendigo can symbolize for them that exploitation. xref Just as the vampire and werewolf do not belong exclusively to people of European descent and the Mummy doesnt belong to Egyptians. Reddit and its partners use cookies and similar technologies to provide you with a better experience. One example is Ojibwe activist Winona LaDuke who has called for a decisive shift away from what she has termed Wendigo Economics for the sake of the health of the natural world. <<410561E535828C4ABA4EA5627C70A225>]/Prev 78716/XRefStm 1365>> Facing History and Ourselves combats racism and antisemitism by using history to teach tolerance in classrooms around the globe. The Wendigo happens to be part of my own (Anishiinaabe) cultural heritage. George warns those who are leaving about the Wendigo myth: anyone who consumes the flesh of their enemies takes their strength but becomes a demon cursed by an insatiable hunger for more human flesh. Ravenous (1999 film) - Wikipedia As a concept, wendigo can apply to situations other than some Native American-European relations. The question of how to challenge the wtiko psychosis as described by Forbes and Wendigo Economics as described by LaDuke is a difficult one, but the mythic force of the concept of the wendigo helps to underscore the urgency of these questions. Cookie Notice These bonnets are symbols of warrior achievements and are the equivalent of military medals. More Than Monsters: The Deeper Significance of Wendigo Stories With teepees, Im not sure I get it. He has written, produced and directed (and occasionally acted in) over a dozen plays, most of them in the Horror and Crime genres. Theres something else. I read some stuff yesterday saying that teepees are cultural appropriation and there was a long post about how wendigos arent cryptids and how stories about them are cultural appropriation. By rejecting non-essential cookies, Reddit may still use certain cookies to ensure the proper functionality of our platform. Big Dan on Twitter Posted by From Stephen Kings Pet Sematary to the television series Hanibal, the flesh-eating image of the wendigo is often presented apart from its original cultural contexts where it carries deep moral significance. Kaitlin Smith on November 30, 2021. In this paper, I document the depictions of windigo in Native American mythology, those of Western literature, and the effects of appropriation and misrepresentation on Native communities. There's nothing wrong with drawing the popular concept of a wendigo monster, or drawing any monster with antlers, and calling it a wendigo. Answer (1 of 6): First and foremost, I'm not telling you this because I personally have a problem with you dressing as a wendigo for a cryptid fair, but we are living in an age of cancel culture where a costume you sported ten years ago might be used against you. In the course of the transformation from human to wendigo, the person exhibits increasing selfishness, violence, hunger, and greedparticularly for human flesh. When the soldiers reach Ives' cave, Boyd and Reich investigate. media has really misconstrued the original lore and importance of the w*ndigo to Indigenous culture. <> %%EOF and our Learn how your comment data is processed. More Than Monsters: The Deeper Significance of Wendigo Stories o&g( Check it out here:https://youtu.be/fHE4fkvUpWMI really just made this video to express how I am currently feeling about the wendigo doll situation and the questions I have about it. Cultural appropriation of Native American culture | Plaid Line New comments cannot be posted and votes cannot be cast. %PDF-1.4 % A Creature Without a Cave | Reinvention: an International Journal of 4. stream His line of questioning effectively asks what if the monstrosity we face is actually not an otherworldly presence but our all too human selves?. During a panel at YES! And you know what? Native Americans, Our headquarters are located at: 89 South Street, Suite 401, Boston, MA 02111. <>/Metadata 266 0 R/ViewerPreferences 267 0 R>> %PDF-1.7 It has become something else altogether. i enjoy his content, but the w*ndigo is part of a closed religion and is supposed to be a lesson about human greed and selfishness, not a cannibal monster story. spellings (see Colombo 2) but is most commonly rendered as Windigo, Wendigo, or Witiko. She's part of a group of young adults created in a lab (she's the only one who wasn't) who have these special abilities. Sponsored by Ball State University Libraries. so im sort of clueless how reddit works and made an account for this, so bare with me. Please report rule violations. Those things, the predation on the Indians by Europeans, most certainly happened. He has written, produced and directed (and occasionally acted in) over a dozen plays, most of them in the Horror and Crime genres. Topics: <>/ExtGState<>/ProcSet[/PDF/Text/ImageB/ImageC/ImageI] >>/MediaBox[ 0 0 595.32 841.92] /Contents 4 0 R/Group<>/Tabs/S/StructParents 0>> Indigenous, You dont have to be of Afro-Caribbean descent to talk about, write about, or make movies about zombies. Until Dawn: On Representation, the Horror Genre, and the Illusion of +9*]aty``mZm/[= ${2R{!g=b{B,L0R2"T]IDa. I believe that the Wendigo is far older than that, far more primal. So yeah, if anyone could offer any insight/information, thatd be appreciated. As I mentioned during our latest episode of the NYMG podcast, I've been playing Until Dawn, and the game has got me thinking about a few different things that I'd like to spend some time parsing through, like the game's representation of things like gender and race, how it is that the idea of choice seems to influence the way we think about these representations, and the manner in which . (Anything that isnt outright vandalism isnt likely to harm the statue at all, but I wouldnt dare do anything disrespectful around it. This articlescross-media analysiscovers television, film and game media;Teen Wolf(201117),Supernatural(200520), Bruce WemplesThe Retreat(2020) and SuperMassive GamesUntil Dawn(2015). That taste of human flesh, which out of that rose the wendigo.. wendigo cultural appropriation To Helheimr with it! Usually, the appropriating culture is in a relation of domination to the appropriated culture. 0000003976 00000 n s\&|5T!JN04hy'I0 1pv=~0-K$k}xSK"g:O*ox&zGa13(YXzy_{v-N^!c@[H Im just struggling to understand the significance of it. J.K. Rowling's Cultural Appropriation Should Be A Lesson To White Writers Native Americans shouldn't be a "niche," and neither should women, LGBT people, or people of color. 0000003862 00000 n Political correctness started out as one thing, a good thing. Okay, dont anybody get me wrong. 0000007477 00000 n More Than Monsters: The Deeper Significance of Wendigo Stories, often presented apart from its original cultural contexts, At Facing History and Ourselves, we value conversationin classrooms, in our professional development for educators, and online. The wendigo is intended to embody hunger, particularly as refracted through the icy cold of winter and the monstrous things that people do when their appetites overwhelm them. Not only is it not offensive, I LOVE seeing references to wendigos in popular culture! 0000013308 00000 n And besides that, it never hurts to include your sources. Archived post. A Creature Without a Cave: Abstraction and (Mis)Appropriation of the Ill admit, my initial reaction was very dismissive. P\^$'$@YWSB;Td54BD?YH"'kh::a;Vqz&4|:>)xP2n |94NrOqE'6 I'm just struggling to understand the significance of it. 0000023412 00000 n Why the Wendigo is Not My Monster - Mysterious Universe Antlers: The Wendigo Monster's History, Explained - CBR Its incredibly validating to know that other people have heard about it and enjoy the story enough to make reference to the name and concept. 0000009596 00000 n endobj This article's cross-media analysis covers television, film and game media; Teen Wolf (2011-17), Supernatural (2005-20), Bruce Wemple's The Retreat (2020) and SuperMassive Games' Until Dawn . That, I would affirm, is truly and literally cannibalism, and it is cannibalism accompanied by no spiritually meaningful ceremony or ritual., More than a commentary on the life of wendigo stories amongst his own people, Forbes deploys the metaphor of the wendigo to advance nothing less than a critique of civilization at large and describes the violence that he argues lies at its foundation as one driven by a kind of wendigo psychosis. That's just pulling a potential explanation out of my ass, though, I have no idea if its accurate or not. After thinking about it more, I think I get it about the wendigos. it's just something thats been bothering me so i thought it'd come to reddit to see what other people thought. The paper concludes that employing the Wendigo as a caveless creature is a common practice within horror as it easily creates a villain for white protagonists to defeat repeatedly. 0000009484 00000 n This space is not for debate. wendigo cultural appropriation [26][27] During the winter of 1878, Swift Runner and his family were starving, and his eldest son died. Far from just being a monster in an escapist horror flick, Forbes and LaDuke demonstrate that the wendigo can help us grasp the horrors of our real world so we can be here now and, ultimately, work toward solutions. endobj Facing History and Ourselves invites educators to explore our case study Stolen Lives: The Indigenous Peoples of Canada and the Indian Residential Schools, particularly our reading "Culture, Stereotypes, and Identity" which features reflection questions surrounding some of the stereotypical media representations that we touch upon at the beginning of this essay. 246 33 0000010971 00000 n :)Looking to buy some stickers or look at some pictures of my art or my other things? And were on the right side, thats what were working on but sometimes you get that cannibal tendency. however, the w*ndigo originates from spiritual beliefs held by Indigenous peoples. Driving down a dark quiet highway in Southern Manitoba, a man sees someone bent over on the side of the road. 0000012030 00000 n Welcome to Facing Today, a Facing History blog. It springs from the well of the collective human unconscious, the communal soul. 1. The windigo is a Native American spirit belonging to the Algonquian tribes of North America and Canada. This construction is problematic in the horror genre as it presents an Indigenous antagonist that poses a threat to white culture for its otherness and indigeneity while at the same time, misappropriating, discarding and demonising the Indigenous culture the myth comes from, at whim. and our This article analyses prominent examples of the Wendigo myth in modern North American horror media and the implications of misappropriation by non-Indigenous creators for non-Indigenous audiences. WAYNE MILLER is the owner and creative director of EVIL CHEEZ PRODUCTIONS (www.evilcheezproductions.blogspot.com, www.facebook.com/evilcheezproductions), specializing in theatrical performances and haunted attractions. Cultural appropriation is the co-optation of elements, customs, or practices of one culture by another culture without acknowledgment or consent. the origins don't even depict the w*ndigo with deer antlers, but a human with bitten off lips. Tell us about it in the comments. This is a place to learn more bout Social Justice The concept of cultural appropriation began well enough, but just like everything else woke culture political correctness, it's gone way too far. It was intended to be a lesson on human greed and the damage it can cause. 0000012791 00000 n But I do notice that Eyre stopped short of saying colonialization is the origin for the Wendigo legend. 7 (2020): Ghosts and Cultural Hauntings. Copyright (c) 2022 Francesca Amee Johnson, https://doi.org/10.31273/reinvention.v15iS1.906, Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, Accepts submissions from any undergraduate student, worldwide, including student-staff collaborations (student must be lead author), Edited by students and staff at the University of Warwick and Monash University. teachers and their students to stand up to bigotry and hate. Scan this QR code to download the app now. Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email. However, it never provents for people of that tribe to share this and that story. Smith and Fiore detail that, among the Cree and northernmost Ojibwa, it is a feared creature because it is understood as both a 'mythic character' and as a threat to humans (2010: 68). appropriation that has troubled the exchange between Indigenous . On top of that, the wendigo is a part of death. 0000000016 00000 n I have this character in a webcomic I want to write who is a Wendigo. Participate in good faith. Beyond Forbes, other Native American thinkers have also used wendigo stories to present critical perspectives on various social problems and call for their resolution. 0000001365 00000 n In this paper, I document the depictions of windigo in Native American mythology, those of Western literature, and the effects of appropriation and misrepresentation on Native communities. Hunchman, K. N. (2020). The creation of new worlds and new universes has long been a key element of speculative fiction, from the fantasy works of Tolkien and Le Guin, to the science-fiction universes of Delany and Asimov, to the tabletop realm of Gygax and Barker, and beyond. Posts and comments should be substantive, and assertions backed in fact or personal lived experience. 0000005961 00000 n By accepting all cookies, you agree to our use of cookies to deliver and maintain our services and site, improve the quality of Reddit, personalize Reddit content and advertising, and measure the effectiveness of advertising. PDF Windigo manitou - Portland State University