Abstract. More Than Monsters: The Deeper Significance of Wendigo Stories Europeans may well have behaved like Wendigos when they invaded the Americasthey didbut they didnt bring the Wendigo with them. I really just want to learn about how to appreciate aspects of cultures that I am not included in respectfully. 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. Although well-documented in Western literature, the windigo spirit of stories like . Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email. :)Looking to buy some stickers or look at some pictures of my art or my other things? PDF Windigo manitou - Portland State University And I accept that the Wendigo can symbolize for them that exploitation. 17spaz 2 yr. ago Film, Stolen Spirits: The Appropriation of the Windigo Spirit in Horror Literature. How stupid to think otherwise. wendigo cultural appropriation [26][27] During the winter of 1878, Swift Runner and his family were starving, and his eldest son died. Cultural appropriation consists of borrowing something from another culture in mockery or thoughtless misuse. Cookie Notice I have this character in a webcomic I want to write who is a Wendigo. 0000012791 00000 n ])yB\}OIZyY8 aA6Vo !C_D#!MYik.1>%'5ryZ*>fb=n#_dr;j5 { media has really misconstrued the original lore and importance of the w*ndigo to Indigenous culture. This analysis will trace the process of these media, made by non-Indigenous white creators, removing the Wendigos indigeneity and placing it within fictional settings as an antagonist. Until Dawn: On Representation, the Horror Genre, and the Illusion of Would getting a tattoo of the wendigo be cultural appropriation - Quora Okay, dont anybody get me wrong. The windigo is a per-sonal spirit that still belongs to the Native American cultures from which it has been taken, and the appropriation of this spirit harms Native American communities by poorly representing their beliefs for a marketable gain. HeyYaIQ 21 days ago. Ravenous (1999 film) - Wikipedia 0000000016 00000 n 0000015547 00000 n Marvel Comics pay tribute to classic Monsters. appropriation that has troubled the exchange between Indigenous . 0000012532 00000 n %%EOF s\&|5T!JN04hy'I0 1pv=~0-K$k}xSK"g:O*ox&zGa13(YXzy_{v-N^!c@[H It can serve as a metaphor explaining any pattern of domination by which groups subjugate and dominate or violently destroy and displace. w*ndigo stuff : r/wendigoon - Reddit Is it cultural appropriation for a white author to use a Native trailer 1 0 obj endobj Cooper and del Toro made the conscious decision to tell the story of the wendigo in a way that is respectful to its Native American roots, which in turn helps make Antlers a more authentic horror film. Since the concept of a wendigo stems from First Nations folklore, maybe someone making a cute little doll of this evil spirit figure was seen as inappropriate or making fun of their culture? The windigo is a Native American spirit belonging to the Algonquian tribes of North America and Canada. 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. There's nothing wrong with drawing the popular concept of a wendigo monster, or drawing any monster with antlers, and calling it a wendigo. Reddit and its partners use cookies and similar technologies to provide you with a better experience. startxref 0000009056 00000 n Why the Wendigo is Not My Monster - Mysterious Universe i don't know if anyone has talked about this, but i have a special interest in Native American culture, history, etc. Posted by In my blind quest to represent everyone, all I did was reinforce the problem. In most traditions, the wendigo is human in origin and becomes a monster through a process that results either from acts of starvation-induced cannibalism or from possession by a spirit. I'm just struggling to understand the significance of it. 0000011489 00000 n Privacy Policy. When the soldiers reach Ives' cave, Boyd and Reich investigate. In contrast to modern horror stories that appropriate the wendigo as a plot device, Forbes implies that what actually ought to be terrifying to us is that we live in societies enveloped in violence and exploitation that we struggle to identify as such. <> Dollightful's Wendigo Doll - Cultural Appreciation or Appropriation? so im sort of clueless how reddit works and made an account for this, so bare with me. Windigo is a malevolent manitou or spirit whose insatiable appetite for human flesh can never be satisfied. 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. The Witherell House and the Cult of Weird, Movie Review: BIRDS OF PREY (And the Fantabulous Inclusion of Victor Zsasz and a Hyena). In Algonquian traditions, the wendigo monster emerges not randomly or in violent response to colonialism as it often does in popular media but through a specific set of circumstances that are unique to different tribal groupings. I just posted a new video talking about cultural appropriation and art! The windigo is a Native American spirit belonging to the Algonquian tribes of North America and Canada. Learn how your comment data is processed. Ill admit, my initial reaction was very dismissive. Finally, it's just not that hard to do two minutes of. 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. And besides that, it never hurts to include your sources. 0000005961 00000 n The Windigo also has the power to turn humans into cannibals who suffer the same . Indigenous, Halloween Costumes That Are Actually Racist, Even if You Might - Bustle Antlers: The Wendigo Monster's History, Explained - CBR His line of questioning effectively asks what if the monstrosity we face is actually not an otherworldly presence but our all too human selves?. 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. It has no place in the world of Folklore and monsters. 0000005554 00000 n 0000005304 00000 n Appropriating the Wendigo | Werewolves Copyright 2022 Facing History & Ourselves. Native Americans, Our headquarters are located at: 89 South Street, Suite 401, Boston, MA 02111. Although this article is specifically observing the Wendigo, I argue that it is one of many caveless creatures, and the treatment of them by creators of non-Indigenous horror genre should be analysed in the future. 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 . J.K. Rowling's Cultural Appropriation Should Be A Lesson To - HuffPost Only those entitled to them should wear them. Although well-documented in Western literature, the windigo spirit of stories like Pet Sematary by Stephen King and The Wendigo by Algernon Blackwood are stripped of their original context and are mere stereotypes of the cultures they originate from. and our Theyre revered spirits to the point where people wont speak their name so it must be frustrating when people are just like Oh yeah, I saw one of those, it was so spooky or have an aesthetic called wendigocore. Stolen Spirits | Digital Literature Review - Ball State University Im glad, because I dont believe that it is. i love the videos uploaded to youtube and try to keep up with posts, so this is by no means a bash at Wendigoon. And they are worth considering including in ones classroom teaching. Wendigos, teepees and cultural appropriation I read some stuff yesterday saying that teepees are cultural appropriation and there was a long post about how wendigos aren't cryptids and how stories about them are cultural appropriation. it's just something thats been bothering me so i thought it'd come to reddit to see what other people thought. 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. T[,%q5 (A friend sent this screenshot to me, along with the info, because he knows how much PC-ism pisses me off. %PDF-1.7 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. 278 0 obj <>stream 2 0 obj It has become something else altogether. For artists, writers, gamemasters, musicians, programmers, philosophers and scientists alike! 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. If so, what did you think about it? xref Scan this QR code to download the app now. New comments cannot be posted and votes cannot be cast. In the course of the transformation from human to wendigo, the person exhibits increasing selfishness, violence, hunger, and greed particularly for human flesh. Driving down a dark quiet highway in Southern Manitoba, a man sees someone bent over on the side of the road. spellings (see Colombo 2) but is most commonly rendered as Windigo, Wendigo, or Witiko. For more information, please see our P\^$'$@YWSB;Td54BD?YH"'kh::a;Vqz&4|:>)xP2n |94NrOqE'6 0000008549 00000 n Vol. o&g( Usually, the appropriating culture is in a relation of domination to the appropriated culture. More Than Monsters: The Deeper Significance of Wendigo Stories, often presented apart from its original cultural contexts, At Facing History and Ourselves, we value conversationin classrooms, in our professional development for educators, and online. Those things, the predation on the Indians by Europeans, most certainly happened. Turning on This space is not for debate. Participate in good faith. The Wendigo may be a figure from American Indian mythology, but it belongs to all of humankind. Archived post. Scan this QR code to download the app now. Western appropriation has long-lasting effects on the perceptions of Native American cultures by the average consumer and even scientific communities. My Thoughts and Questions OllieOnyx 845 subscribers Subscribe 4.5K 119K views 2 years ago I just posted a new video talking. There, he uses the cannibalistic wendigo as a metaphor for the behaviors and attitudes central to patterns of social domination visited upon his own people in the Americas and subjugated peoples everywhere. <<410561E535828C4ABA4EA5627C70A225>]/Prev 78716/XRefStm 1365>> It springs from the well of the collective human unconscious, the communal soul. 0000006529 00000 n 0000010400 00000 n 9'b_X~~@0CKYO~8yOK9I$^I>t 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. Basically, the wendigo was supposed to be a creature you didn't even say the name of or else you could draw the attention of one. More Than Monsters: The Deeper Significance of Wendigo Stories hb```b``Ub`e``s`g@ ~+ a1fm{s/K5N9MHd@*2Ey]#B}>x,&ucrnhm:HkN=_B }Wzp.S#WCXi;dRa ,.0H*. 2. 0000009954 00000 n Tell us about it in the comments. 246 33 0000020040 00000 n After thinking about it more, I think I get it about the wendigos. 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. 0000002723 00000 n On top of that, the wendigo is a part of death. stream The moral lessons contained in wendigo stories are also used to support the task of social critique in the late Native American scholar Dr. Jack D. Forbes book Columbus and Other Cannibals: The Wtiko Disease of Exploitation, Imperialism, and Terrorism (1978). 0000001365 00000 n One does not need to delve very deeply into the annals of American film, television, and literature to find an array of caricatured depictions of Native American peoples and a distortion of their knowledge. As a creator, I believe it is my responsibility, the responsibility of any creator, if using characters that belong to a culture other than mine and exploring themes from that culture, to be accurate. Early folklore described them as tall and impossibly emaciated humanoids with sharp incisors and a heart of ice. the origins don't even depict the w*ndigo with deer antlers, but a human with bitten off lips. He writes: Wtiko is a Cree termwhich refers to a cannibal or, more specifically, to an evil person or spirit who terrorizes other creatures by means of terrible evil acts, including cannibalism I have come to the conclusion that imperialism and exploitation are forms of cannibalism and, in fact, are precisely those forms of cannibalism which are most diabolical or evil It should be understood that wtikos do not eat other humans only in a symbolic sense. Wendigo - Wikipedia 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. 0000010971 00000 n Digital Literature Review 1 Stolen Spirits: The Appropriation of the 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. These bonnets are symbols of warrior achievements and are the equivalent of military medals. The moral lessons contained in wendigo stories are also used to support the task of social critique in the late Native American scholar Dr. Jack D. Forbes' book Columbus and Other Cannibals: The Wtiko Disease of Exploitation, Imperialism, and Terrorism (1978).There, he uses the cannibalistic wendigo as a metaphor for the behaviors and attitudes central to patterns of social domination . Privacy Policy. 3 0 obj a lot of Natives and people in general don't even like saying the word itself. Beyond Forbes, other Native American thinkers have also used wendigo stories to present critical perspectives on various social problems and call for their resolution. A classic example is wearing a Plains Indian war bonnet (see the 80s band The Village People). 0000000974 00000 n 246 0 obj <> endobj 1. 0000013308 00000 n 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. Found out that my Wendigo creature is insensitive. What should - Reddit You dont have to be of Afro-Caribbean descent to talk about, write about, or make movies about zombies. however, the w*ndigo originates from spiritual beliefs held by Indigenous peoples. It's taboo to the Anishaabe people, but the common depiction of it in media is no where near the original frozen cannibal spirit that the legends are based off of. Cultural appropriation of Native American culture | Plaid Line 0000004651 00000 n 0000003976 00000 n Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email. %PDF-1.4 % 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. 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. MORTUI VELOCES SUNT! If you do go as a specific person, avoid figures of religious or cultural significance to a particular group to which you do not belong. However, it never provents for people of that tribe to share this and that story. Sponsored by Ball State University Libraries. Magazine with fellow environmental thought leaders, LaDuke said: Theres this conflict between the cannibals and Mother Earth, and its going on everywhere. 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). No one can try to stake a singular claim to it. 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. This is a story shared not merely for entertainment but to reinforce the communal values that allow the communities in which this practice occurs to live well with one another and within their environments. wendigo cultural appropriation So, thanks, Dave! 13 Cultural Appropriation Examples (2023) - Helpful Professor His first novel, THE CONFESSIONS OF SAINT CHRISTOPHER: WEREWOLF, is available for purchase at https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/734763 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. Reddit and its partners use cookies and similar technologies to provide you with a better experience. 0000001546 00000 n 0000023412 00000 n 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. These new narratives that white people make fail to acknowledge that the wendigo, and the Indi. Hunchman, K. N. (2020). That taste of human flesh, which out of that rose the wendigo.. Stolen Spirits: The Appropriation of the Windigo Spirit in Horror 4. Have you encountered wendigo stories in films, television shows, or books? Only assholes think thats offensive. 0000009484 00000 n And were on the right side, thats what were working on but sometimes you get that cannibal tendency. Answer (1 of 8): Yes, unless actively researched with proper resources and talked to with First Nation folks as proof-readers. That is why we know about the wendigo today, it is an oral tradition like all the . With teepees, Im not sure I get it. As a creator, I believe it is my responsibility, the responsibility of any creator, if using characters that belong to a culture other than mine and exploring themes from that culture, to be accurate. However, PCism taken to its extreme would say that neither Cooper, nor I, should be telling stories about Wendigos at all, since were not of aboriginal descent. 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. By looking at the depictions of windigo in these specific Western stories and in Native American beliefs, it is possible to see how stripping spirits of their original contexts is harmful to Native communities. When she was brought to the lab she already had the curse of the Wendigo but after she was "updated" she had visible antlers and could change her shape. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. For resources: http://reddit.com/r/SRSDiscussion/wiki/required. 0000004071 00000 n Is it Cultural Appropriation if I have a Wendigo character? One of those advisors I just mentioned, Chris Eyre, had this to say of the Wendigo: They [meaning Native peoples] truly, truly believe in it, because it represents greed and colonialism when we first came to the shores of what is now America, and pillaged all of their resources and forced them [into] cannibalism. 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. A Creature Without a Cave: Abstraction and (Mis)Appropriation of the The deaths of tens of millions of Jews, Slavs, etc., at the hands of the Nazis, the deaths of tens of millions of blacks in slavery days, the deaths of up to 30 million or more Indians in the 1500s, the terribly short life spans of Mexican Indian farm workers in the US, and of Native Americans generally today, the high death rates in the early industrial centers among factory workers, and so on, all clearly attest to the fact that the wealthy and exploitative literally consume the lives of those that they exploit. She is Native American. Be supportive, this is a place for growth, not hostility. x\o7a_h ss+yHL$eW}gfw)$/D !;n*+v}}uSU|.&-y 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.