Reading and Writing Fiction Without Guilt: 4 Thoughts about Cultural Appropriation (and how to avoid it)
Reading and Writing Fiction Without Guilt:
4 thoughts about cultural appropriation (and how to avoid it) by Martha Engber
When I began writing THE FALCON, THE WOLF AND THE HUMMINGBIRD in 2002, I did so for two reasons.
I was fascinated by the inventiveness and stamina of the indigenous people of southern Connecticut, where my sisters live. And I was equally mesmerized by the thought of how differently women fight than men.
The result is the story of two women warriors of opposing Native American tribes in pre-colonial New England (Sept. 19, 2023, Histria Books).
But between the time I started researching the book, and when I planned to submit the story for publication, the concept of cultural appropriation lifted to the forefront of the American consciousness.
The dictionary defines the term as “the unacknowledged or inappropriate adoption of the customs, practices, ideas, etc. of one people or society by members of another and typically more dominant people or society.”
An example would be wearing dreadlocks or a Native American headdress at a concert because the look is trendy, rather than having anything to do with a real connection to the culture from which the tradition originated.
Our society’s close examination of how we use symbols, attire, phrases, images and other aspects of cultures outside of our own is a wonderful, necessary and long-overdue development.
That said, the new emphasis challenged me to rethink certain aspects of my book, a journey other writers have no doubt faced.
After taking a close look at my own work, these are the lessons I’ve learned.
Yes! to greater sensitivity
When we humans expect more from ourselves, we often rise to those expectations. If we challenge ourselves to question the information we’re given and where it comes from, we become more discerning. If we challenge ourselves to be more sensitive about what could be insulting to others and why, we become better readers, writers and people.
Great stories rely on many different characters
All writers need license to create characters from different races, backgrounds and cultures. In THE WIND THIEF I wrote about an Algerian woman and an Indian man. In WINTER LIGHT I wrote about an impoverished youth far from the middle-class socioeconomic status I enjoyed.
Such freedom to imagine is fundamental to creating any art. That and readers’ thirst for stories about vastly different people and places continues to increase in a world where many presses now publish for a world audience, rather than a single country.
The writers who manage to avoid cultural appropriation are those who take character development seriously, a point I make in my book GROWING GREAT CHARACTERS.
Fundamental respect for each character is a must
By seriously I mean authors who create each character not as a type — a store clerk, a servant, a villain — but instead as a real person with real dreams and flaws and who’s facing real conflict. In THE FALCON, the protagonist, 19-year-old Pino, belongs to a tribe facing annihilation by a larger tribe. Having already faced immense loss, she can’t bear to face the destruction of her people, as well.
Such profound respect on the part of authors allows them the curiosity to get deep inside characters to discover their deepest fears, a place far beyond their color, race, ethnicity and gender.
Diving that deeply into a character requires researching the person’s reality in what they say and do and why. That analysis goes a long way to bypassing cliches, myths and incorrect information.
But authors shouldn’t stop there.
Every author has blind spots to find and resolve
Great research also means purposely searching for information that finds and obliterates authors’ blind spots and biases.
Because that’s what our current era tells us: we may think we’re unbiased and fair, but all of us have absorbed messages or been part of systems that are inherently unfair to various groups of people.
Besides articles, videos, podcasts, such research might also include employing sensitivity readers to point out what we might have overlooked.
I’m currently working on a project with a small writing team and the perspective provided by our sensitivity reader blew my mind and drove home the message that even when we have the best of intentions, we need help routing out preconceived notions that are invisible to us, yet obvious to those we might be writing about.
Conclusion
Our current world demands more of us as human beings. More sensitivity. More discernment. More inclusiveness.
Fortunately with those increased demands comes the reward of more authentic stories about people, places and cultures from around the world, both past and present.
That greater knowledge leads to greater understanding in every respect, which lifts societies as a whole.
Huzzah and happy reading!
THE FALCON, THE WOLF AND THE HUMMINGBIRD
A consummate warrior and brilliant strategist, Pino is a young Native American woman who must fight against fierce invaders to save her tribe — and spirit — from annihilation in precolonial southern New England.
The strange tale of sisterhood begins on the stormy spring morning her tribe faces imminent attack by a contingent of the mighty Pagassett Nation, infamous for destroying small tribes in its quest for land and power. Pino knows this is the moment she’s been waiting for, a chance to save her people and maybe —maybe — redeem herself for failing to rescue her beloved sister, murdered ten summers ago.
Aided by her best warrior and forbidden love, Tow, and key tribal leaders who witness Pino’s gift for camouflage, she clandestinely influences strategy in the short, but wildly intense conflict. She soon discovers her real opposition is Meesha, a beautiful near-slave taken in by the invading tribe when just a girl. By learning how the other operates, the women form an intimate, almost
magical sisterhood in their internal fight to free their inner demons.
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AUTHOR BIO
Martha Engber is the author of BLISS ROAD, a memoir about her neurodiverse family. Her other novels include WINTER LIGHT, an IPPY Gold Medal Winner in Young Adult Fiction, and THE WIND THIEF. A journalist by training, she’s the author of GROWING GREAT CHARACTERS FROM THE GROUND UP. She lives in California with her husband, bike and surfboard. She invites readers to connect via her website, MarthaEngber.com.
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