I’d hate to be a party pooper, but as a Native woman, this all makes me seriously uncomfortable.
If the Hogwarts mascots were a lion, a snake, a badger, and a raven, all real animals, why do these new ones have to be religious creatures? Also, the Hogwarts houses all had fanciful made up names but these are legitimate names of creatures Indigenous peoples believed in. Doesn’t that seem a little ethnocentric to anyone?
And the whole “indigenous magic but i can’t say which tribe” bullshit? Seriously? No, it’s not like we aren’t all thrown into a cultural stereotype by white people all the damn time.
So glad I never got into Harry Potter, or this could have been heartbreaking.
If you ever wondered what cultural appropriation looks like, it looks kinda like this.
I don’t have any energy left to rant more about this entire shitbundle of “no, leave your hands outta my culture” that is Rowling’s new venture. So I’ll just second what other Native folks are saying.
ugh. Suddenly so glad we know jack about South Asian magic.
oh… oh no
I hesitate to even reblog this because the image content is so infuriating, but a significant portion of my dash is non-north american HP fans and has been quietly talking about this new content like it’s a fun game and not some of the most blood curdling appropriative bullshit I’ve seen. (On account of its scale and audience, that is.)
I won’t be talking about it and if I ever create fan works for HP this won’t be in my personal canon, and I’d like to ask y’all to think a little more carefully about it if you choose to interact with this extended content.
As a non-Native person, the best thing I think I can do is listen to the Native writers and artists who are responding to this, and who have already created incredible imaginary worlds and stories that don’t spit in the face of their religions and cultures.
The primary problem here that I am perceiving is the lack of voice they have, compared to the outsized and clearly ignorant voice of JKR. (And don’t give me that “she couldn’t have known any better” crap. Maybe in 1992. She could have hired representatives from many different tribes to consult with. It would have cost her equivalently nothing and given many cultures an awesome boost.) So in response my choice is to really listen to and respect the voices of the people who are actually affected by this. Use this as a chance to learn more about a culture you’re unfamiliar with; the awful things that have been done to them, the incredible resilience their cultures have brought, the beautiful and hilarious and heartbreaking stories they have to share, the breathtaking variety and breadth of differences inside what is often perceived as, but what is by no means a singular culture. If you come across a Native artist or writer in your online travels, please, pay attention. Give them the same attention you would give JKR, or more.
Kirkwall Was Totally Built On a Hellmouth 