and our As a concept, wendigo can apply to situations other than some Native American-European relations. His first novel, THE CONFESSIONS OF SAINT CHRISTOPHER: WEREWOLF, is available for purchase at https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/734763 In this paper, I document the depictions of windigo in Native American mythology, those of Western literature, and the effects of appropriation and misrepresentation on Native communities. This space is not for debate. This article's cross-media analysis covers television, film and game media; Teen Wolf (2011-17), Supernatural (2005-20), Bruce Wemple's The Retreat (2020) and SuperMassive Games' Until Dawn . 0000000974 00000 n x\o7a_h ss+yHL$eW}gfw)$/D !;n*+v}}uSU|.&-y 246 0 obj <> endobj Vol. 9'b_X~~@0CKYO~8yOK9I$^I>t 0000009954 00000 n This article analyses prominent examples of the Wendigo myth in modern North American horror media and the implications of misappropriation by non-Indigenous creators for non-Indigenous audiences. By accepting all cookies, you agree to our use of cookies to deliver and maintain our services and site, improve the quality of Reddit, personalize Reddit content and advertising, and measure the effectiveness of advertising. Copyright (c) 2022 Francesca Amee Johnson, https://doi.org/10.31273/reinvention.v15iS1.906, Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, Accepts submissions from any undergraduate student, worldwide, including student-staff collaborations (student must be lead author), Edited by students and staff at the University of Warwick and Monash University. Early folklore described them as tall and impossibly emaciated humanoids with sharp incisors and a heart of ice. Still though, Im not sure I fully get the Native American spirits(?) I think she knew that her decision would be challenged and she wanted to let people know that she had valid reasons for doing what she did. i don't think there should be any 'canceling' of Wendigoon or whatever, but definitely something should be said. Learn how your comment data is processed. And I accept that the Wendigo can symbolize for them that exploitation. Be supportive, this is a place for growth, not hostility. Its incredibly validating to know that other people have heard about it and enjoy the story enough to make reference to the name and concept. 0000000016 00000 n T[,%q5 Facing History and Ourselves combats racism and antisemitism by using history to teach tolerance in classrooms around the globe. The latest addition to this lineup of wendigo tales is Scott Cooper and Guillermo del Toros horror film Antlers (2021) in which a Native American character provides some brief exposition before the story centered around a white community contending with the monster begins in earnest. And besides that, it never hurts to include your sources. %%EOF 0000008020 00000 n l Ca#!LzH{t+8W5 !2*_{)rgx-`]CTXSH($g Kaitlin Smith on November 30, 2021. For resources: http://reddit.com/r/SRSDiscussion/wiki/required. Check it out here:https://youtu.be/fHE4fkvUpWMI really just made this video to express how I am currently feeling about the wendigo doll situation and the questions I have about it. If you do go as a specific person, avoid figures of religious or cultural significance to a particular group to which you do not belong. 0000009056 00000 n 0000003976 00000 n <> Archived post. Sorry, this post was deleted by the person who originally posted it. endobj Although well-documented in Western literature, the windigo spirit of stories like Pet Sematary by Stephen King and The Wendigo by Algernon Blackwood are stripped of their original context and are mere stereotypes of the cultures they originate from. Windigo is a malevolent manitou or spirit whose insatiable appetite for human flesh can never be satisfied. However, PCism taken to its extreme would say that neither Cooper, nor I, should be telling stories about Wendigos at all, since were not of aboriginal descent. endobj He has written, produced and directed (and occasionally acted in) over a dozen plays, most of them in the Horror and Crime genres. 2 0 obj You dont have to be French to love the Phantom of the Opera. Only those entitled to them should wear them. Turning on In this paper, I document the depictions of windigo in Native American mythology, those of Western literature, and the effects of appropriation and misrepresentation on Native communities. She is Native American. Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email. In my blind quest to represent everyone, all I did was reinforce the problem. startxref Driving down a dark quiet highway in Southern Manitoba, a man sees someone bent over on the side of the road. The deaths of tens of millions of Jews, Slavs, etc., at the hands of the Nazis, the deaths of tens of millions of blacks in slavery days, the deaths of up to 30 million or more Indians in the 1500s, the terribly short life spans of Mexican Indian farm workers in the US, and of Native Americans generally today, the high death rates in the early industrial centers among factory workers, and so on, all clearly attest to the fact that the wealthy and exploitative literally consume the lives of those that they exploit. The Windigo also has the power to turn humans into cannibals who suffer the same . The windigo is a per-sonal spirit that still belongs to the Native American cultures from which it has been taken, and the appropriation of this spirit harms Native American communities by poorly representing their beliefs for a marketable gain. Theyre revered spirits to the point where people wont speak their name so it must be frustrating when people are just like Oh yeah, I saw one of those, it was so spooky or have an aesthetic called wendigocore. I analyze the way the windigo are represented in Western literature and argue that Native American spirits should belong to the cultures they originate from. Dollightful's Apology: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wW-KBzKWvrUTo clear up the addition that I made even more, I think that it would be pretty important for the information on this topic to be easily accessible to her viewers. Posted by Handle the characters and the story with respect. 0000004651 00000 n 0000001365 00000 n spellings (see Colombo 2) but is most commonly rendered as Windigo, Wendigo, or Witiko. The windigo is a Native American spirit belonging to the Algonquian tribes of North America and Canada. Cultural appropriation is the co-optation of elements, customs, or practices of one culture by another culture without acknowledgment or consent. The Wendigo happens to be part of my own (Anishiinaabe) cultural heritage. stream arent cryptids thing. Here's some links:Website - https://thesierramistify.wixsite.com/thesierramistifyEtsy - https://www.etsy.com/shop/thesierramistify?ref=simple-shop-header-name\u0026listing_id=736195213Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/thesierramistify/Art Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/thesierramistify.art/- Music used in this video -Prime Beatz - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nkG3r3-ODOw Not only is it not offensive, I LOVE seeing references to wendigos in popular culture! i love the videos uploaded to youtube and try to keep up with posts, so this is by no means a bash at Wendigoon. 0000003862 00000 n During a panel at YES! No one can try to stake a singular claim to it. 4 0 obj Native Americans, Our headquarters are located at: 89 South Street, Suite 401, Boston, MA 02111. 0000013308 00000 n 0000008549 00000 n A classic example is wearing a Plains Indian war bonnet (see the 80s band The Village People). So yeah, if anyone could offer any insight/information, thatd be appreciated. Facing History & Ourselves uses lessons of history to challenge For artists, writers, gamemasters, musicians, programmers, philosophers and scientists alike! From Stephen Kings Pet Sematary to the television series Hanibal, the flesh-eating image of the wendigo is often presented apart from its original cultural contexts where it carries deep moral significance. We should show proper respect to our Cryptids at all times, and Im rightfully righteously indignant at the thought of anyone doing otherwise with Mothman. Topics: This is a story shared not merely for entertainment but to reinforce the communal values that allow the communities in which this practice occurs to live well with one another and within their environments. 0000007477 00000 n That is why we know about the wendigo today, it is an oral tradition like all the . 0000020040 00000 n teachers and their students to stand up to bigotry and hate. This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. The creation of new worlds and new universes has long been a key element of speculative fiction, from the fantasy works of Tolkien and Le Guin, to the science-fiction universes of Delany and Asimov, to the tabletop realm of Gygax and Barker, and beyond. This analysis will trace the process of these media, made by non-Indigenous white creators, removing the Wendigos indigeneity and placing it within fictional settings as an antagonist. I dont know who originally posted it, or where. And were on the right side, thats what were working on but sometimes you get that cannibal tendency. 246 33 But I do notice that Eyre stopped short of saying colonialization is the origin for the Wendigo legend. My Thoughts and Questions OllieOnyx 845 subscribers Subscribe 4.5K 119K views 2 years ago I just posted a new video talking. Finally, it's just not that hard to do two minutes of. As a creator, I believe it is my responsibility, the responsibility of any creator, if using characters that belong to a culture other than mine and exploring themes from that culture, to be accurate. Only assholes think thats offensive. In contrast to modern horror stories that appropriate the wendigo as a plot device, Forbes implies that what actually ought to be terrifying to us is that we live in societies enveloped in violence and exploitation that we struggle to identify as such. In most traditions, the wendigo is human in origin and becomes a monster through a process that results either from acts of starvation-induced cannibalism or from possession by a spirit. For more information, please see our We do the same thing with a lot of mythological creatures. By looking at the depictions of windigo in these specific Western stories and in Native American beliefs, it is possible to see how stripping spirits of their original contexts is harmful to Native communities. This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. It can serve as a metaphor explaining any pattern of domination by which groups subjugate and dominate or violently destroy and displace. Even in the face of ongoing cultural appropriation and erasure, wendigo stories are but one reflection of the survivance, wisdom, and brilliance of Native peoples. The Wendigo may be a figure from American Indian mythology, but it belongs to all of humankind. The Witherell House and the Cult of Weird, Movie Review: BIRDS OF PREY (And the Fantabulous Inclusion of Victor Zsasz and a Hyena). And whoever!). And you know what? Answer (1 of 6): First and foremost, I'm not telling you this because I personally have a problem with you dressing as a wendigo for a cryptid fair, but we are living in an age of cancel culture where a costume you sported ten years ago might be used against you. Mythologynote my use of the capital M to convey that it is far more than just some made-up stories; it is stories containing deeper spiritual truthsbelongs to all of humanity. In a report from the Contemporary Folklore conference covered in issue 388 of FORTEAN TIMES, the go-to magazine for all things paranormal, weird, or unexplained, a complaint is voiced about the "cultural appropriation" of the Wendigo, likening it to the "sexualization" of the Mothman statue in Point Pleasant, West Virginia. 3 0 obj hb```b``Ub`e``s`g@ ~+ a1fm{s/K5N9MHd@*2Ey]#B}>x,&ucrnhm:HkN=_B }Wzp.S#WCXi;dRa ,.0H*. Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email. a lot of Natives and people in general don't even like saying the word itself. symL,JyvCq;[H~! 0000012030 00000 n and our 278 0 obj <>stream As I mentioned during our latest episode of the NYMG podcast, I've been playing Until Dawn, and the game has got me thinking about a few different things that I'd like to spend some time parsing through, like the game's representation of things like gender and race, how it is that the idea of choice seems to influence the way we think about these representations, and the manner in which . The question of how to challenge the wtiko psychosis as described by Forbes and Wendigo Economics as described by LaDuke is a difficult one, but the mythic force of the concept of the wendigo helps to underscore the urgency of these questions. "@TheThiccholas @realcoolJAY They can't say Issa wendigo cus of cultural appropriation props to them buuuuuut also WENDIGO type energy sooo " Rules: If you were to look around the world about other religions, anything that is associated with death and disease is regarded upon. % In most traditions, the wendigo is human in origin and becomes a monster through a process that results either from acts of starvation-induced cannibalism or from possession by a spirit. This is a place to learn more bout Social Justice In the course of the transformation from human to wendigo, the person exhibits increasing selfishness, violence, hunger, and greed particularly for human flesh. His first novel, THE CONFESSIONS OF SAINT CHRISTOPHER: WEREWOLF, is available for purchase at https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/734763 Privacy Policy. Tell us about it in the comments. 0000007047 00000 n however, the w*ndigo originates from spiritual beliefs held by Indigenous peoples. By rejecting non-essential cookies, Reddit may still use certain cookies to ensure the proper functionality of our platform. Usually, the appropriating culture is in a relation of domination to the appropriated culture. 7 (2020): Ghosts and Cultural Hauntings. media has really misconstrued the original lore and importance of the w*ndigo to Indigenous culture. After thinking about it more, I think I get it about the wendigos. Reddit and its partners use cookies and similar technologies to provide you with a better experience. hbspt.cta._relativeUrls=true;hbspt.cta.load(443401, 'c61f3219-a9f3-4b0c-95ea-f614a80c184b', {"useNewLoader":"true","region":"na1"}); Pictured above: A portion of the poster for the film Antlers (Fox Searchlight, 2021). <>/Metadata 266 0 R/ViewerPreferences 267 0 R>> 0000004071 00000 n One example is Ojibwe activist Winona LaDuke who has called for a decisive shift away from what she has termed Wendigo Economics for the sake of the health of the natural world. they've been stripped of cultural context. But as far as cultural appropriation and the Wendigo goes, dont you daredont you DAREtry to take our monsters away from us, PC wankers!
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