New-Age vs Native Rights
New Age Spirituality Annexes Aboriginal Culture
"Good Guys" part three. In the complex domain of Aboriginal rights, new-age gurus often find themselves working for the enemy.
Often new-age spiritualists will integrate Indigenous groups into their causes, or even champion Aboriginal causes through their own struggles against the system. However, while well intended, this movement is often disempowering and even racist towards Aboriginal people, resulting in the same kind of dispossession as that inflicted by colonial governments.
I really don't even need to build an argument here. All I need to do is say one word, and I'm sure you'll know what I'm getting at:
Dream-Catchers.
The appropriation of exotic artifacts, knowledge and symbols by the new-age industry is staggering. People think they can buy and "own" Indigenous knowledge or culture, and become shamans through the purchase of books and ceremonial objects. There seems to be a limitless demand for Indigneous trinkets to help people build a "mystical" atmosphere. Many of these are sacred objects that really shouldn't be touched by these people. Or worse, shoddy rip-offs that reduce the sacred to mass-produced westernised parodies of "the primitive".
Low-maintenance "Primitive Spirituality"
This perpetuation of the myth of the primitive is a big concern. New Age consumers want to oppose the dominant culture, but in a comfortable way that doesn't take too much effort or discipline. So it often suits them to construct Indigenous knowledge as primitive and simplistic, so they can acquire "mastery" of "primitive arts" and philosophies without too much trouble.
Escaping The New Age Tonto/Jacky-Jacky Role
But let me tell you, this peaceful woo-woo world quickly turns vicious if you challenge it. These "brothers and sisters" can get nasty if you question their right to plunder any aspect of Indigenous knowledge or practices. Suddenly you find your culture criticised for being patriarchal, controlling and oppressive. New age gurus, their power-base threatened, can really go for the jugular if you challenge the way they've misused or misquoted or misappropriated traditional knowledge. Suddenly you are ejected from your role as noble spiritual being, and find yourself sneered at for a "savage".
So I believe the new-age movement is colonial at its core, and strongly market-driven. Rejection and challenge of the dominant culture has been reduced to a jumble of gimics and knick-knacks cobbled together with scraps of stolen knowledge, while the gurus crush any dissenting "savages" to protect their mystical domain. Another case of the "good guys" working for the enemy.
