This week @IndigenousXca is once again tweeting about #Inuit culture, hosted by Amy, a Mi'kmaw/Inuk dance artist, and dearer to my heart, an activist at York U working for Palestinian justice. All liberations are connected, she points out.
I often hear people say scathing things about #twitter, but this is a great example of what you can achieve in a couple of sentences. A little bit of knowledge goes a long way.
In a short thread, Amy poured very cold water on those #inuksuk we see all over the place. (I live on the Vancouver Island coast, where the rocky beaches that lend themselves to "inuksuk" building frenzies all summer long). Amy pointed out these legged creatures aren't inuksuk at all, but are #inunnguaq and signify murders and suicides. Well that just makes it even worse.
In teaching I sometimes use #inuksuit and the Vancouver Olympics as an example of #cultural #appropriation, and this just lends more fuel to that fire. We really need to stop picking up #indigenous #knowledge like moronic magpies and abusing it like this.