Climate change is wreaking havoc on the coastlines, with friends near the seas experiencing unprecedented flooding and freezing. I hope everyone is staying warm and dry, and that you had a good Hogmanay, Winter Solstice, or whatever you and yours celebrate. I've mostly been active on Twitter and other platforms, but will be blogging more at some point.
There was also some brief, but confused coverage on sites like Jezebel, and other Entertainment media, who got it wrong. But thankfully they updated the story once more comments came in (and, ahem, the author actually read the tweets rather than just skimming and rushing out a scoop). They've also embedded the Storify now, and our comments clarifying that there really was no real apology, only a sort-of one, way too little, way too late. And of the backhanded kind that leaves you scratching your head and asking, "Is that all there is?": Non-Native Jezebel Writer Attempts to Make Sense of a Celebrity Pretendian Meltdown. AKA, Native Twitter on a Random Friday.
Yeah, really not how I planned on spending New Year's Eve. Exhausting and exasperating, as these things tend to be. But when they come at you, you have to stand with your people. Things have settled out more now. As much as they ever do.
Be well, everyone. May the racists, trolls, and racist trolls go back into hibernation. Slàinte Mhath.
For those of us with Irish heritage in the diaspora, this is one of the most awkward and uncomfortable times of the year. While we are relieved at the lengthening days and warming weather, glad to have survived another harsh winter, we are also horrified at the debacle that is American and Canadian Saint Patrick's day.
As I write this, the riots have started. In one college town this weekend, thousands of students celebrated their idea of St. Patrick's day by drinking themselves sick, puking on their violent green t-shirts, assaulting one another and hurling bottles and rocks at the riot police that tried to stop them from harming other civilians. This behaviour is shameful, and as an Irish-American it makes me very sad and dismayed to see this happening yet again in the name of "Irish pride." Of course, I think only a minority of those rioters even have Irish heritage. And what heritage they have, they dishonour.
As I've written about before, to attend some of these awful festivities can put your safety in jeopardy. And the thing is, these drunken blowouts have nothing to do with being Irish.
We're pleased to present an article debunking some of the myths around St. Patrick's Day: Pagans, Polytheists, and St Patrick’s Day, as well as two videos on the topic.
Video one is a general introduction to the problems with the stereotypes, and video two is directed more specifically at the myths around Patrick himself, and the misinformation spread by both Pagans and Christians.
Our Gaol Naofa video channel has been in the works for a while now. Treasa made our first videos two years ago, then we stalled out a bit on getting more done. This year we've tried to use our anger and frustration around the whole St. Paddy's thing to motivate us to finish up some projects and counter the misinformation. Check out our playlists for other videos that should be of interest to Gaelic Polytheists, or anyone interested in Celtic Reconstructionism and Gaelic cultures in general. If you like what you see, feel free to subscribe, as more is in the works.
We also honour our ancestors who worked so hard to survive oppression, famine and exile. The St. Paddy's parades in the diaspora initially began as cultural celebrations - a day for members of an oppressed ethnicity to gather together and celebrate their survival against the odds. It was only after our recent ancestors "became white" and rose to power in the police departments and mainstream politics that the marches became drunken bacchanals, with little to no connection to anything traditionally Irish.
James Arthur Ray, convicted of three counts of Negligent Homicide for killing three people (and injuring over twenty more) in a racist, humiliating, pretendian debacle in a plastic death tent, will be loose in just 10 Days. He killed three people, but he's being turned loose.
Here's a refresher, from the Usual Suspects:
He wants your money; he'll take your life. Don't let him ever again have a career at this stuff. Don't let him sell his deadly fake rituals. Don't let him lead any kind of ceremony, ever. Don't buy it, don't excuse it, don't look the other way.
James Ray was able to get away with killing these people due to two things: racism and greed. Racism led otherwise-intelligent people to think they could trust a white man to lead ceremonies that Native people had said he had no right or ability to lead. They bought the racist fantasy that they could be the "better Indians" - that they could attain in one week, or a series of seminars, things it takes normal people decades to achieve, if they ever achieve it at all. And they were greedy enough that they bought the illogical proposal that if they did his silly and offensive newage rituals - gross fabrications mixed with pale imitations of spiritual ceremonies he only pretended to know - that it would bring them material riches. They thought they were better than Native people, they thought they were above the laws of nature. And as long as people are willing to believe those kinds of offensive and absurd falsehoods, frauds and exploiters like Ray will get the chance to kill them.
Thoroughly non-NativeRachel Holzwarth is still calling herself "White Eagle Medicine Woman," even though she promised the real Native Americans who picketed her racist displays that she would stop doing so. She is still dressing in fake Plains NDN regalia, even though she promised NDNs she would stop. She lied. Then she lied some more.
Now she's looking for some place to sell her fake ceremonies and "prayerformances" (her word), and she's hoping she can find some place where there are no NDNs, and where no one cares about misappropriation. Her only performances and workshops in the US in the past five years have been in all-white, gated enclaves. She's gotten some confidence back by selling her pretendian schtick to Jews & tourists in the Middle East. Now, five years after her broken promises, she is once again looking to branch out. This is from her Facebook page (It looks like you will have to temporarily "like" the page to see the posts):
Holzwarth photoshopped a version of a spiral from a Christian
manuscript into one of her bizarre publicity photos:
It's not even an image of
the Newgrange spiral. Ripping off an unrelated image from an Irish manuscript gives her no more connection to Newgrange, or
any other Irish sacred site, than does her hanging Australian eagle
feathers off that death drum and claiming it gives her the right to represent Native
Americans. Yet she has lied and claimed to be "Celtic" just as she has lied
about being Seneca. She has never shown that she knows anything at all about Irish (or any other Celtic) culture. She just tried that old racist ploy of thinking "Celtic" can be used as shorthand for "white appropriator." When pressed, she has admitted she is Jewish. There is nothing wrong with being a Jew, but apparently Rachel seems to think so. It looks like she has tried to be lots of things.
The death drum contains human remains and
human blood. It is evil, like the racist pretendian fraud who bangs on
it, the one who has openly espoused the racist theories of Steiner -
suggesting that all the NDNs need to die so the white people can inherit their
medicine. Anyone of any spiritual sensitivity who has been near that
thing can feel that it is bad, bad ju ju. Anyone with basic human compassion for oppressed people must stand up to this crass exploitation.
Heads up, Irish and
English folks, and anyone else in the Isles. Don't let this woman
exploit you the way she's tried to exploit Indigenous people everywhere
she's gone. Don't let her come to your land, don't let her present
there, don't buy her lies.
Don't let her rip us off the way she's ripped off Native Americans. Don't let her steal our ancestors or sell a mangled misrepresentation of us to the capitalist newagers. Don't let her use us to promote her racist agenda.
So when a day is supposed to be about celebrating a culture, about celebrating an identity, and that identity is then popularly portrayed as being the worst stereotype of that culture, the meaning and significance is completely lost in a sea of four leaved shamrocks, leprechauns and an alcoholic haze. It isn't an appropriation of Irish culture, because you would need some actual Irish culture to be appropriating. No, its bizzarely just a sophmoric misrepresentation, which is then celebrated as being authentically Irish; cultural misappropriation, perhaps?
The harm, of course, is completely lost on such folks because their closest contact with actual Irish culture or tradition is the bowl of Lucky Charms they had for breakfast. It is an argument from ignorance because they do not understand the significance, and so are indifferent to the point of arguing that people who do get upset or irritated by such portryals, "just need to lighten up."
Then again, one could argue that faulty interpretations of history (and culture) are what St Patrick's Day is all about now. Some years ago, Ben and Jerry's ice cream released a special edition flavour to "celebrate Irish culture." They had the brilliant idea of calling it "Black and Tan," which oh no, couldn't possibly be offensive at all - it's a drink, right?
After the outcry, they pulled the ice cream and apologised profusely. So it's quite perplexing that Nike have now decided to "celebrate" in a similar way with their Guinness and Black and Tan trainers. Awww. Bless 'em. I like how "celebrating" is unashamedly synonymous with "cashing in on" and "being totally unaware of history."
And one from the vaults: Five years ago I weighed in on the the Irish-American dilemmas of this blessed day, and don't have more to add that the others haven't already covered: Anciente Oirish Family Wisdomme:
So, my Anciente Family tradition I'd like to share on this day? Stay home.
Or, if you're lucky to live somewhere (as I do now) where people only use the holiday as an excuse to schedule Gaelic music and arts performances, and there's no more drinking than usual, and no one dyes anything green (except maybe their hair), go out and support real Irish culture. Go to a language class or seisiún, support an Irish-language (Gaeilge) musician or arts group. Make offerings to the deities, spirits and ancestors who roamed the land before anyone ever heard of St. Patrick. Remember what lives below the surface, what sustained us long before anyone commercialized and exploited a few, distorted elements of the culture. These things can, and do, sustain us still. So, if you want to be "Irish for a day," find out what Irish really is, because, for the most part, it's not what you'll see in the streets this weekend.
This video perfectly sums up what is wrong with the newagers and others who engage in cultural appropriation. James Ray admits he has no idea what a local, possibly indigenous, woman at this sacred site is saying. She appears to be explaining the site to visitors. Ray not only ignores her words (that he could have recorded and had translated later, if she gave him permission to do so) but instead he talks over her, giving his outsider interpretation of what the symbols at this site mean, and what religious significance he thinks the site has. Of course, he uses appropriated imagery and his fantasies of Indigenous people's traditions for this, though he admits that he "doesn't understand a word" of it.
Her voice is drowned out, and his replaces it. His voice is broadcast over the Internet, as hers is reduced to background noise, and then forgotten. Misinformation and fantasy replace traditional knowledge. The appropriator says some more racist crap, laughs about the Indigenous people, and laughs about how clever he is.
Next James Ray tells us that his pay-to-pray, "prosperity consciousness" group, World Wealth Society, are over in a nearby "vortex". Now he's making money off the sacred site. They have invaded this indigenous sacred site, and are performing their own idea of a death/rebirth ritual. Or something. If Ray's comments and attitude are any indicator, they have no idea what ceremonies have been traditionally held at this site, or which spirits live there, and which things please them... or anger them. Probably no one in his group had any idea how to call to the local spirits (since they don't understand the language) and probably they were so caught up in their pay-to-pray experience that they didn't think to call on some of their own ancestral spirits. By barging into this site and not knowing the people or spirits of the land, even calling ancestral spirits might have resulted in them stirring up things that would clash with the local spirits. Then again, maybe they did get noticed by someone... as death is following James Ray.
If James Ray had listened to Indigenous people, the three people who died in his Sedona deathlodge would still be alive. Indigenous people said, "You don't know what you're doing. Don't pretend you are leading one of our ceremonies. Don't try to lead these fake ceremonies at all. No. Stop."
But like so many lower-profile appropriators of his ilk (who, like Ray, come from the dominant culture and never interact with traditional, non-colonized Indigenous people), Ray decided he knew better than those dumb Indigenes. He knew better: how to better interpret their sacred stories, how to better lead rituals of his own devising on their sacred sites, how to talk to those spirits (despite not understanding a word of their language), how to fulfill the newagers' fantasies of mystical ceremonies they secretly knew no Indigenous person would ever teach them. If the newagers had simply listened to the people who said traditional ceremonies must be in the language of that culture, maybe they wouldn't have paid $10,000 to die.
Multiple witnesses in Ray's manslaughter trial said they trusted that Ray could lead a sweat lodge because he showed them pictures of himself with nameless Indigenous people. Thanks to the efforts of dedicated NDN activists in North America, he would have had a hard time passing off traditional people here as his teachers. (See, NDNs here have phones and email.) So he claimed people from the more rural regions of South America, who have less phone service (and usually no Internet), were his teachers. (This tactic has become very popular with the appropriators, by the way.) But if the consumers of his pay-to-pray pyramid schemes had understood that Indigenous people have names, opinions, and sovereignty over their own cultures, they wouldn't have fallen for this. As long as there is racism, there will be appropriation. And as long as there is appropriation, people will support dangerous frauds like Ray.
A somber group of Saginaw Chippewa Tribal members on Thursday brought some of their ancestors home.
A sunrise ceremony at Central Michigan University’s Special Olympics building was followed by a procession of Tribal members bringing the remains of Saginaw Chippewa Tribal ancestors and funerary objects that were returned to the Tribe from CMU’s Museum of Cultural and Natural History.
... ... ...
“The Saginaw Chippewa Indian Tribe and Central Michigan University share a long and proud heritage of mutual respect,” said Pam Gates, interim dean of the College of Humanities and Social and Behavioral Science. “In honor of the proud culture, heritage and history of the indigenous people of this region, CMU will rightfully return the remains of Saginaw Chippewa tribal members in its possession to their families for proper burial.”
Saginaw Chippewa Tribal Chief Dennis Kequom said said he was humbled by CMU’s commitment to returning ancestral remains to the Tribe.
"I am very proud of what we have gathered here to do today and humbled by the care, understanding and sensitivity that Central Michigan University has displayed in the time it took to bring us to this point,” he said. “This historic event marks a new direction in our efforts to repatriate all of our ancestors.
“It is my hope for our Tribal community that other institutions throughout Michigan and elsewhere follow the lead of Central Michigan University. There are so many people to thank and we will have ample time for that over the course of these next two days. Today we proudly reclaim our own and return them home.”
May this victory serve as inspiration and precedent to all those who are still fighting to have their ancestors remains returned and reburied with dignity. I particularly take it as inspiration today as we work on reburial issues for the ancestors in the Tara-Skryne.
(CNN) -- Self-help guru James Ray was arrested Wednesday after a grand jury indictment charging him with three counts of manslaughter in the deaths of three participants at an Arizona sweat lodge ceremony he organized last year.
Yavapai County Sheriff Steve Waugh said Ray was arrested at his attorney's office in Prescott, Arizona, Wednesday afternoon.
He will eventually be housed at the Camp Verde Detention Center, the sheriff's office said, and his bond has been set at $5 million.
Ray is charged with the deaths of Kirby Brown, James Shore and Liz Neuman.
The newage, pyramid-scheming, scam artist crammed 65 people into a plastic death tent, which he claimed was a sweatlodge. In the hot, wet dark with the man who had no idea how to lead an Indian ceremony, and no connection to any culture that could have taught him how (or told him this was a really bad idea), they sweated for two hours... till two were dead, three were unconscious, and 21 others went to the hospital.
Hazmat teams and crime scene tape now surround the site. Native American ceremonial people from the area are saying that, by imitating a ceremony he was not trained to perform, this newage plastic shaman killed these people. I agree. They used materials in this fake ceremony that should not be used, they used things that were physically and spiritually dangerous. They paid $9,000 for a sad death at the hands of a greedy con man.
I have no idea if they prayed in this fake ceremony, or how. I don't think this guy knows any prayers beyond, "Gimme Gimme Money Money".
James Ray makes his living as a self-styled, newage "prosperity" guru. He sells pyramid schemes and "you create your own reality" guilt trips to rich people. He's been on Oprah.
Even if this shameon knew how to run a small sweat, even if by some miracle this non-Native had been authorized to do so (not going to happen, but we're playing "what if") there's no way one person can keep track of 65 people in the dark. Especially 65 people who've never done this before, and been told they have to suffer to learn. 65 ignorant people who thought paying a newage guru for a weekend retreat would make them "warriors". I'm sure these seekers were all trying to out-macho each other; they were dehydrated and suffocating, and may not have said anything about how much distress they were in. And even if this creep were able to tell they were in distress, maybe he just didn't care. I've seen some really ugly, psychopathic predators among these types. These are the sort of callous exploiters who blame suffering people for their illnesses, and claim victims of holocausts and genocide brought it upon themselves with their "negative thoughts".
"Many so-called successful people make a tremendous amount of money, but their relationships are on the rocks. That's not real wealth.
Likewise, there are others who qualify as a creative genius, and they're physically sick all the time. That's not real wealth!
Then there are those who claim to be really "spiritual," and they're always financially broke. That's not wealth either!"
Then he goes on to promise that if you pay him lots of money, he will show you how to fix all this. If it doesn't work, well, you just weren't spiritual enough.
No compassion, no spirituality, just greed.
And the people were willing to pay him so much because he's been on Oprah. Are you listening, Oprah? I know some kick-ass Indian women who could come on your show and talk about how dangerous it is to Pay to Pray.
This is all over the news now, but for analysis that doesn't mislabel this new age fraud as a "Native American" ceremony, I'd suggest the ongoing discussion and posting of links in this thread on the New Age Frauds and Plastic Shamans site.
Note: When I first wrote this, initial reports were unclear, but most said there were 21 people in DeathRay's DeathTrap. Now that we know more, I've changed this to reflect the number that survivors are saying he crammed into the fake lodge (approximately 65). As of this update (Oct 26, 2009) three people have died, and more are suffering with neurological damage and possible organ failure. We now have multiple survivors stating that Ray forced these people to stay in the death tent even when they were severely disoriented, crying for help and passing out, and that he told people to not get medical help for those who were sick and dying. Criminal charges appear to be pending.
Thanks to Diana, LaDonna, Sarah, Lierre, the Iktome Returns Collective, and everyone else who has emailed and posted about this.
Native American groups are organizing protests against Rachel Holzwarth (aka "Suraj Holzwarth" aka "White Eagle Medicine Woman" aka the name actual Native elders have given her: "White Ego Woman" or "White Ego Fraud"), who is planning on spreading her racist swill on Long Island, NY.
Lisa Hill has written a good summation of the situation so far, including an excellent analysis of Ego Fraud's racism and it's similarities to the ugly, racist philosophies of Rudolf Steiner:
“On one side we find the black race, which is earthly at most. If it moves to the West, it becomes extinct. We also have the yellow race, which is in the middle between earth and the cosmos. If it moves to the East, it becomes brown, attaches itself too much to the cosmos, and becomes extinct. The white race is the future, the race that is creating spirit.” (Rudolf Steiner, The Being of Man and His Future, Rudolf Steiner Press, 1981, pp. 118-119)
A common theme of Holzworth’s talks is the need for the human race to “evolve” to a higher state of vibration and the belief that it is inevitable for the ancient “red race” to go extinct so that the more spiritually evolved “white race” can fulfill its destiny to replace the “red Indian of old.” Holzworth has made no secret of her opinion of modern First Nations people as a degenerate race who have no spirituality because their karma is to live in poverty and alcoholism.
Steiner and Holzworth both find what they call “the red race” to be lacking. Steiner considered First Nations people to be connected with “the forces that have a lot to do with human extinction.” Both Steiner and Holzworth describe contemporary First Nations people as “a degenerated human race” which was the reason why they had succumbed to such a degree. Her teachings are filled with the concept of the more deserving “White Race” evolving spiritually to a higher frequency take the place of the degenerate, corrupt, drunken “Red Race” who exists at a lower frequency than the “White Race” and whose karma is extinction.
Steiner stated that “It isn’t because of the whims of the Europeans that the Indian population has died out, but because of the Indian population had to acquire those forces that led it to die out.” (Steiner, Die Mission einzelner Volksseelen, s. 4:9)
The statements that Holzworth has made in her talks about the Whirling Rainbow prophesy and her public statements about drunken, deranged Native Americans who object to her teachings are virtually identical to Steiner’s views about race.
Hartman is one of the protesters who was attacked, pepper-sprayed and arrested, and the one whose blood Ego (Vampire) Fraud stole and rubbed on her drum.
It's good to hear more details on what happened. Other good news is that the case has been continued without finding, with no time served and no guilty verdicts.
Though the protestor's aim of destroying the drum was not achieved at that action, I think it was the brutality shown by the cops and the "peaceful" nuagers, as well as Ego Fraud's chilling blood incident, that really got the ball rolling on this. Hartman and his crew are my heroes for their bravery that day, and I'm relieved they haven't had to serve any time for it.
Thanks to their confrontation, word and outrage spread, so it was a success.
May it continue to spread, till the bloody fraud drum is destroyed and Holzwarth is forced to find a new career.
In Indigenous Feminism and Cultural Appropriation, Jessica Yee takes on the frustrations of trying to define an Indigenous feminism that supports strength and power vs "preciousness", while struggling with both the racism of the mainstream feminist movements and the sexism of many of the cultural groups.
Good read. Excellent challenging of the stereotypes and misconceptions that abound on both (all) sides of the issues.
The University of Michigan has the remains of about 1,400 Native Americans, as well as thousands of funerary objects. So far they have refused to return the already-studied and cataloged remains, or the sacred objects, to these people's surviving descendants and communities. Ancestors whose bodies and ritual objects deserve to be treated with respect have had their remains scrawled on with pens and are now gathering dust in the storerooms of the University campus. Check out the video below for more info.
