The spirit of appropriation is also relevant to those who work with “dead cultures” such as the Old Irish, Old Norse, and Indo-Iranian hearth cultures. As Starhawk (2011) states, appropriation is “Taking the gifts of the Ancestors without a commitment to their descendants” (p. 59). This is the premise of much of the awareness we promote at Mountain Ancestors. Rev. William Ashton II (2016) recently spoke of Outdwellers being made by a new power of dominant culture pushing the conquered peoples to the outside away from the fire; his modeling involves making an offering of tobacco to the descendants of this land, those who we have made the Outdwellers, in the hopes that we will one day heal the wounds inflicted by colonialism in the United States. Further, we promote the exploration of the current, modern peoples from the cultures whose Gods and practices we have borrowed or reconstructed in addition to the scholarly pursuit of ancient archaeology and lore, not only as adult education, but also as part of children’s education. We have been working toward peace relations between the pagan community and the Indigenous peoples in the area. There are several local tribes, and it is part of our work to build a bridge of respect and understanding with them in the hopes of building community.
References
Ashton II, Rev.
W. (2016). Outsiders. Mountain Ancestors Fall Symposium. 17 Sept 2016. Boulder,
CO.
Pagan Wiccan
About.com. Plastic Shamans. Retrieved from http://paganwiccan.about.com/od/ControversialIssues/fl/Plastic-Shamans.htm
Starhawk.
(2011). The empowerment manual: A guide for collaborative groups. Gabriola
Island, BC: New Society Publishers.
Young, J.O &
Brunk, C.G. eds. (2012). The ethics of cultural appropriation. Malden, MA:
Wiley-Blackwell.