Cultural Appropriation or Cultural Appreciation?

After experiencing open racism during my medical herbalism training, I went down a rabbit hole of exploring my ethnicity as a first generation Indian Punjabi Sikh woman born in London, UK in relation to my identity. Having been born and raised in a city where during my younger years people generally stayed within their own ethnic communities to watching the city change as it became more and more multicultural through my twenties and thirties, I guess I believed that racism and prejudiced was something that had become outdated.

However, as you move out of the large cosmopolitan city of London towards the rest of England, you can at times somewhat feel you are in a time warp. But this article isn’t about the cultural differences and nuances of being me, or a reflection about London and England, this article is about how that journey led me to the more focused approach of how I honour and respect the shamanic traditions and practices I work with.

photo source: Suomi, Finland (www.abzlocal.mx/fi)

I have to say it was a female indigenous Yawanawa shaman from Brazil, Grandfather Tobacco and the Hape medicine, that really allowed me to explore this subject. I waited a long time to be served Hape for the first time, as I was waiting for the right person and the right ceremony, and when this event popped up in late 2022 I knew I was meant to be there. As I entered the ceremony and found myself a little spot to sit, I watched as many people went to have their face painted in the traditional Yawanawa way. It didn’t instinctively feel like something I wanted to do, and as I considered going up, I had a loud and clear message come from within, ‘No, that is not your culture’. This wasn’t a judgement on those who were participating. As I was one of the two people of colour amongst the approximately fifty to sixty people attending, the message served more as an undeniable acknowledgment of who I am.

I am Indian. I am Punjabi. I am Sikh. I am Suneet.

Before being served this medicine the shaman spoke of needing to restore her people’s pride in being indigenous as well as preserving their cultural traditions for the next generation. After being served Hape, I sat back down and made my prayer. Amongst other things, I prayed for Peace in my family. It is the second time I have made potent prayers for this in ceremony, the first being in 2019. I didn’t realise then the depth or power of this prayer, not really understanding the profoundly traumatic impact of colonisation on my ancestral land, ancestors, my family and myself. As the ceremony deepened we all danced silently connecting to the person in front with a gentle hand, and I heard my ancestors chanting loudly ‘Waheguru’ through the music that was being played. A sacred Sikh word meaning God.

Months later, after a long journey of personal healing around prejudice, racism and separation, I found myself in a position where I watched someone in the shamanic community use the word Waheguru in way that felt like pure appropriation. Someone who claims to support the indigenous and leads others in ceremony. Perhaps a mistake? Perhaps I misunderstood? Perhaps there is something I am not seeing? Sadly, none of these were the case, and after a series of disappointing replies to my emails I realised that whilst some are careful not to appropriate with indigenous traditions, it sadly does not mean that courtesy is extended to my culture or community.

So this is my story, put in a very brief nutshell, of what led me to the following guidelines. These guidelines are how I try to stay in cultural appreciation rather than appropriation within my shamanic work and other spiritual practices. As a person who doesn't want to appropriate because I understand the pain and trauma that is caused by this, if you feel these guidelines could be added to, edited, or amended to be more in line with respect, honour and kindness please do drop me a line.

4 Key Checks to Cultural Appreciation vs Cultural Appropriation.

So this week I've been speaking with the plant spirit kingdom especially Yarrow and the White Pine Tree about the difference of working in different cultures and traditions whether shamanic or something else, and it's led me to making this video that gives you four key checks to make sure that you are working in right relationship with your shamanic traditions or your other practices whether personally or professionally.

So the first thing to check is what is your relationship with your own identity,

with your own bloodline, with your own family story? Have you made peace? Is there ancestral healing that needs to be undertaken? Do you understand what medicine that your ancestors bring you and why your soul chose to be born in that bloodline with that family and that story?

This is really key because if you are in peace and balance with your own ancestors and your own identity then it's very likely you will be in the correct space to show the appropriate care, consideration and respect when working in other cultures and traditions.

The second thing to think about is initiation.

So when we work in other traditions with a word or an object or a practice or a technique you know we really need to be initiated into that. An initiation happens usually directly through a teacher or it can happen from spirit. That practice or that technique or that object can choose you as well and if that happens an initiation isn't something where you go ‘oh I like that it feels good, let me take it and use it’. Initiation is it's so much more than that it is a depth a profound connection to that thing, that word, that technique, that practice. It is a deep initiatory experience and it's really important to differentiate that from, oh yeah, that feels good. It's so much more than that. So the second thing is initiation.

The third key check is context.

That technique or object or word or mantra that you are working with, do you understand its context in its culture? Do you understand the cultural traditions that go with it, its origins, the sacredness and the respect that is shown to it in certain practices or certain ways in that culture? Do you understand its context?

Because if you don't understand the lines and the boundaries of those things, then you may be working with it in a way that would be seen as disrespectful. So context is really important.

And the fourth key check to think about is credit.

When you work with these things, do you credit where they come from? Do you honour the lineage or the people that brought the culture that brought that thing to you? Whether it's in your own personal practice in prayer, or whether it's in circles that you're running, are you appropriately crediting where those practices come from? Because even if you're not claiming them as your own, if you're not appropriately crediting them, then there is a silent implication that it is yours. So it's really important to honour the traditions that you get your practices from and you work with and appropriately credit.

So if you do this four key checklist, it will help you sit in cultural appreciation rather than cultural appropriation.