Stamp It Out
Survival International's Campaign Against Stereotypes Of Aborigines As Primitive Savages
Jun 12, 2006
The caption on the front of the Stamp It Out postcard campaign from Survival International says,
"No bombs, No prisons, No poverty, No homeless, No junkfood, No pollution, No sweatshops. And people call them primitive. Racism kills tribal people. Stamp It Out." It also contains the photo of the young woman pictured above.
Most of the articles on my site here carry the message that our cultures are not primitive, fossilised artifacts from the stoneage, static relics destined for extinction. On the contrary, in many ways our cultures and technologies are far more advanced than those of the dominant culture, and are constantly adapting and evolving, as they always have throughout what has been called "pre-history".
I have also highlighted the fact that most of the technological and intellectual advances that allowed western expansionism in the first place were actually stolen from indigenous people. And yet the myth of the "primitive" has still managed to achieve prominence in the dominant culture, justifying ongoing theft of indigenous Intellectual Property, land and resources, in the name of "development" and "progress".
Well, Survival International has decided to put a stop to this myth once and for all, with their "Stamp It Out" campaign. They have developed a protest postcard that members of the public can send to editors of programs or publications who portray or refer to indigenous peoples as "primitive". The text of the postcard reads as follows:
"Terms like 'primitive' and 'stone age' have been used to describe tribal people since the colonial era. They reinforce the idea that these peoples have not changed for generations. But this is not true. All societies adapt and change - not just ours. Tribal people are no more 'savage' than the rest of us. The idea that tribes are backward leads directly to their persecution. For example, it is claimed that forcibly developing tribes is 'for their own good', and helps them 'catch up' with the 'civilised' world. The results are almost always catastrophic: poverty, alcoholism, prostitution, disease and death. I hope you will refrain from using such terms in the future."
To obtain your free "Stamp It Out" postcards, Click here.
