Vancouver’s first Indigenous fashion week to celebrate ‘cultural appreciation’ - The Globe and Mail

20.5.17

Vancouver’s first Indigenous fashion week to celebrate ‘cultural appreciation’ - The Globe and Mail: The July exhibit will feature emerging and established designers including Sho Sho Esquiro, Pam Baker and Jeneen Frei Njootli.

And it comes as debate over cultural appropriation is especially fractious thanks to recent controversies in the art and literary worlds.

An outcry over a white Toronto painter who embraced an Anishinaabe painting style forced the cancellation of her art show and sparked debate over the line between inspiration and theft.

More debate followed with an editorial in the Writers’ Union of Canada magazine that dismissed the notion of cultural appropriation and encouraged writers to explore cultures and traditions that were different from their own.

That also raised immediate protest, prompting the author and magazine editor Hal Niedzviecki to apologize and resign from his post as debate erupted in various media.