Fashion Goes Back To The Future With Hair Feathers - But No Acknowledgement (Or Royalties) For Native Culture

Posted on March 3, 2011 by Greg Guedel

    

Described as a “fresh new trend for Spring”, fashionable hair salons are beginning to offer “Feather Extensions” -- actual feathers of all colors, attached to the hair with small crimp beads.

Natalie Angelillo, whose “Swink” salon was the first to introduce the feather phenomenon to Seattle last November, says: “We have a huge range of clients who come in for feathers. From high-schoolers to 40-year-olds. It’s such a fun thing, and people are going crazy for it.”

The photo above left provides an illustration of a current “Feather Extension” offering in distinctive colors. The photo above right is an engraving by Thomas Hariot of the hair feathering displayed by Native Americans in what is now Virginia -- in the year 1588.

So far, there has been no acknowledgment by the “Feather Extension” manufacturers of the inspiration they must certainly have derived from original Native American culture – nor any offer of royalty sharing with Native culture organizations.
 

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Can Theft Of Native Culture Occur - On Ice-Skating Costumes?

Posted on February 1, 2010 by Greg Guedel

(Nick Verreos)

Russian figure-skaters Oksana Domnina and Maxim Shabalin are among the favorites to win gold at next month's Winter Olympics in Vancouver. However, the costumes and skating routine they have chosen have provoked less-favorable reviews from Aboriginal scholars and activists. The theme for their ice-dancing routine is intended as a tribute to Aboriginal peoples, with the skaters wearing suits with Native-inspired designs and their music featuring samples of Aboriginal instruments.

Despite good intentions, the pair have been criticized for co-opting cultural traditions without due respect or understanding. Bev Manton, chairwoman of the New South Wales Aboriginal Land Council, declared the skaters had misappropriated "a foreign culture, and used [it] inappropriately." "We see it as stealing Aboriginal culture," said Sol Bellear, a member of the Aboriginal Land Council.
 

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