We have a comparable situation here in Ireland where most of us don’t know what our cuisine was pre colonisation. It irks me when my people consider British culture to be Irish. From tea, pub culture, fry ups, you’ll hear people actually think of them as Irish culture. It’s the classic post-colonial situation where we perpetuate our own cultural erasure.
Thanks for sharing! I had read a little bit about the difficulties in attempting to retain the traditional language, so I wondered if there were other struggles similar to we’re facing here in the US. I know how you feel about the cultural food thing. I was lucky enough to be around traditional food and I’ll admit it’s a little emotionally hard to see people holding up frybread as the default example of what they think of “Native American” food, especially given its history.
Great article and very sensitively written.
We have a comparable situation here in Ireland where most of us don’t know what our cuisine was pre colonisation. It irks me when my people consider British culture to be Irish. From tea, pub culture, fry ups, you’ll hear people actually think of them as Irish culture. It’s the classic post-colonial situation where we perpetuate our own cultural erasure.
Thanks for sharing! I had read a little bit about the difficulties in attempting to retain the traditional language, so I wondered if there were other struggles similar to we’re facing here in the US. I know how you feel about the cultural food thing. I was lucky enough to be around traditional food and I’ll admit it’s a little emotionally hard to see people holding up frybread as the default example of what they think of “Native American” food, especially given its history.