“Did you know”? Did you know that question can reverse a mindset of ignorant insult more effectively in the long run, than a demand to stop insulting or demeaning? When we rear up in great and loud umbrage to something that someone is unaware or uninformed of, it is we who look brutish. So, I respectfully disagree with raising my fist on this issue to ask, why are we sending warriors to do the job of elders?
Was it really the most desired or effective expectation that singer Pharrell Williams apologize over wearing a feathered headdress on the cover of Elle Magazine? Could we have appealed to him to perhaps make a supportive statement instead of castigating him publicly and likely creating embarrassment and resentment where there was none? Could we have found a way to use the opportunity to instead educate and even celebrate our culture? Could we have simply left it alone?
Whether they are deliberate or not, moments of insult are opportunities to educate. I am surmising here about the effectiveness of taking those opportunities, but I’d be willing to bet everything I own that most people who are taught a little understanding behave more respectfully moving forward. I believe that because if this world wasn’t populated by more decent, caring people than not, we would be living in widespread chaos and savagery.
Did you know that no matter how much we educate, scream at, or protest against something that harm’s a belief, there will still be those few people who work to throw their misery at the rest of us? They will continue to behave in ignorance because that is what they will – willful ignorance, and there is nothing we can do to fight that.
Photo courtesy of Darren Quarin Photography
I am a status Metis citizen. My people have lived in our homeland for thousands of years, and yet I still find more and more to learn about us every year. It really wasn’t all that long ago that even I discovered the true significance of the feathered headdress. I knew the eagle feathers used in them are sacred to us, but I wasn’t fully versed in why they made the headdress as important as it is to us. Is it our right to demand that everyone else adopt the same belief?
Whenever I read another article about how outraged and appalled my people are with the ignorance of an uneducated or willfully ignorant lot encroaching on First Nations belief systems, I feel a little like asking is this the most valid issue? Was the Elle cover of Pharrell wearing a First Nations headdress worthy of the ensuing cacophony?
I fight for the right to equality, civility and courtesy, clean lands and water, and the right to prosper, but demanding respect isn’t the same as earning it, and as unfair as it is, no matter what we do, we may never get it anyway. Aren’t our warriors better placed in front of those rights issues?
Photo Courtesy Robert OToole Photography
I wonder why the healing energy of our traditional humour is lost. Why must we take ourselves so seriously that we are victims of pride instead of its gentle conquerer? When all events are reacted to as the worst insult, then our cases for deliberate transgressions become diluted. This isn’t fair, but by now we understand that not all life is fair. Our belief systems were not the first to be taken down the road of irreverence to outright disdain, nor will they be the last. Christian crosses, national flags and Scottish clan identifying tartans are just some on the long list that come to immediate mind.
Some people equate the insult to black face. I think what’s more in line with that racist activity are behavioral uses like face war paint, the gestures of tomahawk chops, and racial epithets like redskin.
I understand the anger, but education is an ongoing behavior. An issue in the news today isn’t an issue tomorrow if we just keep talking with each other simply and honestly. Do we think that because we’ve asked these kinds of questions ten times or even thousands of times, we don’t need to ask them anymore? Every year thousands of new people are born and will need to hear our stories, is is too demeaning to ask repeatedly:
• Did you know that the feathers on a Native headdress signified great respect, honour, and achievement in the same vein of military medals such as the Medal of Honor?
• Did you know that the term redskin is a slanderous term to describe Native North Americans in the same vein as calling people the ‘n’ word?
The more people who just hear what the headdress means to us, the more there will be to realize those who wear them unjustifiably are simply foolish or in need of some schooling. The point for us is to remember is schooling is never over, so on issues like this, can we just talk about it?
Even if we managed to reach every single being on the planet with our information, it still wouldn’t change everything. No, it wouldn’t. We will never convince everyone, not any more than those who couldn’t care less about medals or crosses.
I do know though, that asking an honest question will reach another heart faster than berating it.
Photo Courtesy Walter Jonasson Photography
On the other hand, we are also too attached to things. Symbols like military medals or feathers are still things. We did not create the feather or the metal, we borrow them. They are not the feelings of honour and respect that fill our hearts, but the symbols we chose to emblemize that. If that symbol becomes broken or lost, we are still reverent to the point and purpose of our honoured. We are really the sacred, we feel. What we must remember to hold dear is our true reverence for actions of honour and behaviours of respect and courage and love. It is those feelings that matter and they can never be broken or lost.
I am a Metis mother, and this is a lesson I am learning for, and with, my young son.
Photo Courtesy of Jim Wong Photography
A thank you to White Wolf for allowing me to share this post about what eagle teaches called Eagle Medicine : http://www.whitewolfpack.com/2011/07/eagle-medicine.html
July 5, 2014: Post updated with cultural examples of crosses and tartans, and to make my position more clear in the need for simple ongoing education.