08/22/2026
Last week, there was a viral video of an ignorant [settler] woman defending cultural appropriation at her organization.
“Now I’m scared to wear my Native-designed beaded earrings,” was one of her gaslighting responses (as if that’s equivalent to wearing a sacred headdress 🙄)
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Here’s 5 reasons why wearing Native-designed earrings is NOT cultural appropriation:
1. Decolonizing Wealth // Buying directly from Native artists bypasses corporate colonial systems.
2. Funding Resistance // Financial support helps Native creators sustain their families and community-led initiatives.
3. Combating Exploitation // Purchasing authentic work (not Native “inspired” earrings) fights the colonial pattern of stealing and mass-producing Indigenous designs.
4. Affirming Artistic Freedom // Purchasing diverse mediums allows Indigenous artists to reclaim their right to use modern technology and diverse materials to express their Ancestral stories and identities on their own terms
5. Normalizing Indigenous Presence // Wearing these pieces proudly brings Native art and identity into modern spaces. It normalizes it.
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That ignorant woman said that Natives calling out cultural appropriation would make people NOT support Native artists.
Let’s prove her wrong.
Followers, tag your favourite Native earring designer so people can purchase directly from those amazing artists
