Okay I’m only gonna say this once and preface this with the fact that I am Eyak and I probably do not want to hear your opinion on the Pharah skins Raindancer/Thunderbird. This is a really soul baring post so I’m not so sure about people reblogging it, if you do just try to be respective and remember this isn’t a go-ahead to go and appropriate all native cultures.
They’re pretty damn clearly based on Pacific Northwest tribal cultures. The ones I can pick out being Eyak/Tlingit/Haida/Tsimshian, but we often get grouped together so that doesn’t surprise me. There are many more, but I don’t claim familiarity with all tribes and I can’t say if their art styles and myths were used.
For your comparison a little sample of the tribe’s artistic styles just to get the point across:
And I really have to get something off my chest people. I don’t have a problem with these skins, in fact I adore them. Please just chill with me for a second while I explain.
The biggest issue I see here is people (who usually arn’t ndn, let alone from pac nw tribes) yelling about cultural appropriation. Which good! I’m glad people are on guard for it! But it’s entirely possible that Pharah’s father was Eyak/Tlingit/Haida/Tsimshian or from another closely related Pacific Northwest tribe, so we can’t really call that yet. It wouldn’t surprise me if he was.
Most importantly, speaking as an Eyak. Which is all I can do despite Tlingit/Haida/Tsimshian being so closely related, our tribe’s relationship with cultural appropriation is uh, not exactly the norm.
The last Eyak fluent speaker died in 2008, her name was Chief Marie Smith Jones and she was also the last full-blooded Eyak on Earth. The very last. Please appropriate Eyak culture. It’s the only way it’s going to survive. There’s less than 500 of us remaining, and we’re scattered more and more every year. Families I grew up with in Alaska converted to Catholicism. The military took my family across the globe and left us an entire continent away. The language I learned at the dinner table in 1998 now almost exclusively exists on those cassette tapes my white father recorded that night and in reconstructive attempts from a French academic that studied our language from halfway across the globe.
It sucks shit guys, it really does.
When I first saw the Thunderbird skin I cried, I cried for an hour. Because Overwatch is huge. It will live on for years if not decades. And there’s Pharah with her hair in braids I haven’t seen my mother wear in over a decade. Wearing the colors that remind me of a home I no longer have. Embodying a mythic figure that I trusted to protect me during Y2K and sought out constellations in the sky for.
So before you spew vitriol about how racist it is that they did that. Just kind of chill out and think about different perspectives for a moment. If you really want to help us? Consider taking a poke about http://www.eyakpeople.com/ and taking a look at our language revitalization project! It’s pretty fun and you could even learn a language out of it.
AwA’ahdah (Thank You)
I’m really moved by this. It reminds me that so often we get personally offended on behalf of someone else’s minority- whatever that is. It’s vital that the people in question get their voices heard, and what they say will probably not be what you thought, since they are a minority and have a uniquely special perspective on our world. It’s up to storytellers (in film, comics, news, books, games) to amplify those voices in creative ways, so all of us can hear them! Arohanui, ~S
Why are The Neurotypicals so quick to jump on anyone who doesn’t fit their idea of normal?
I just saw a video of an old lady who only likes the colour green. She dresses green, her hair is green, her house is green! It’s amazing.
So many of the comments were speculating about her mental state & suggesting that she needs help.
Why though? She’s happy, she is not hurting anyone? So why does she need help? Why does she need to change? Because she’s ‘weird’ & that makes you uncomfortable?
Why are perfectly innocent things something to be corrected?
Here’s my totally true autobio comic about PCOS and facial hair that I did for Dirty Diamonds last year! I’m a lot less stressed out about my hair than I used to be, but looking back on this, I’m not sure I’d be entirely okay with hanging out with a sentient beard.
I lucked out with my PCOS (… well as lucky as you can get) and just deal with weight issues, acne, a little depression, and my slowly dying thyroid… medication helps all of that, but it’s really great to see a really informative and inspiring comic like this!
yall realize the average lifespan for a trans woman is 30-32 years.. and that is largely because of hate crimes resulting in murder.. ALL feminists need to support trans women and not just because they want to because they need to
