Zine Review: Cultural Appropriation in Spirituality

Cultural Appropriation in Spirituality

Theory zine, various authors, 62 pages, witchesunionhall.wordpress.com , 7$ or free online

 

culturalWith a 20-some word subtitle and 62 pages including Acknowledgements, Introduction, Writer Bios, Definitions, a Glossary, and Resources, readers will be immediately aware that this is no joke.

Another thing that is no joke is douchebag hippie cultural appropriation. The creators of this zine know it intimately as residents of the west coast of North America who are active in witch-related cultural/spiritual practices. This publication is a direct response to this type of behaviour, and as such I can appreciate it to be important for its milieu.

For people interested in a brutal take-down of hippie bullcrap, or an in-depth analysis of said bullcrap, this is not for you. Rather, a reader will find something more akin to a workshop outline with questions for group discussions, instructions for magical experimentation, supplemented by short prose pieces touching on different aspects of the problems being addressed.

To be completely honest, I skimmed all the questions and magic stuff; that’s not my bag in the slightest. So if you’re like me, and you engage with questions of cultural appropriation, decolonization, settler-colonialism, race, and so on, that’s maybe not enough to carry you through this zine. It’s not really for you and me. This is for the serious witch who needs to process whiteness and cultural appropriation specifically from within that context. I know there’s tons of you out there, get in touch with these fine folks! (Stephane Doucet)