Do you ever wonder what Native Americans think about headdresses at festivals? it’s not really that good, here is Native American’s React To Festival Fashion.
Music festivals all over the world have been home to non first nations people wearing head dresses ignorantly as a fashion statement for many years, and with the many beliefs of first nations people have been disrespected. Come with us and lets explore why its not a good idea to wear native american atire to music festival and what we as people of such a rich cultural background can do about.
One of the main reasons that wearing a headdress to a music festival is so frowned upon is because the people wearing them do not know the actual meaning behind it. Though the intentions of these people are harmless or some even know the meaning behind it yet don’t care the point is still the same that it’s simply not okay to do so. Due to it being cultural appropriation and disrespectful to first nation people.
Chief Sitting Bull
In First Nations culture the headdress was given to a male of great respect, a leader who earned every feather on the headdress. The headdress way originally was made of eagle feathers, in many First Nations tribes around the world receiving an eagle feather is one of the highest marks of respect and honor of them all. A person to earn these feathers one must do so through acts of courage or honor, or receive them as a gift for their work in their community or nation. Nowadays eagle feathers can still be seen being given to First Nations People who have achieved something great such as graduating high school, college, university, getting married, or being voted in a high ranking political position such as chief or council member.
So how do we even begin to tackle this? Well exactly what i am doing right now, Educating people who simply do not know that its disrespectful to first Nations culture and to its people. And for the people who do know that its wrong well theres really not much we as First Nations people can do for people who choose to disrespect us through racism and bigotry but what we can do is continue practicing our ways and praying that one day that they too can see that we are humans just like them. Theres is bad people out there but there is also good people and the thing the makes us different from eagle’s, geese and buffalo’s is that we can choose not to focus on the bad but on the good things that we have been given.
